


Everyone's Brand New and Improved Killing Game Semester

by Nhitori



Series: Everyone's Brand New and Improved Killing Game Semester [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Mastermind (Dangan Ronpa), F/F, M/M, Multi, Other, Talentswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-01-22 02:19:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 257
Words: 310,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12471300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: When Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Artist, finds himself waking up in a strange new place, he has no idea what to think.  Lucky for him, the Ultimate Detective Kaede Akamatsu is there to do the thinking where he can't, and she's optimistic that the nature of the Ultimate Academy is to cultivate their talents; Even when the headmaster encourages them all to participate in a Killing Game.  Everyone, even the magician who can't seem to stop lying, agree not to participate... But does that really mean anything?(Please feel free to discuss theories in the comments!  Goal is to post daily!)There's a discord server now: https://discord.gg/zWBN8JV if anyone would want to join ithttps://sta.sh/2165cl4i3hcc?edit=1 Map of the Academy (Lab location spoilers)





	1. Waking Up

**Author's Note:**

> Hoo well here';s my ndrv3 talentswap. I hope you enjoy and leave lots of comments! And that you appreciate my choices in talent swapping. Kokichi, Maki, and Miu in particular, I feel I swapped in an interesting way.
> 
> You may also notice that I've used 'Super High School Level' in all of my previous writing, but I played ndrv3's localized version rather than reading a translation, and as far as I can tell the Japanese version still called it the 'Ultimate Academy', so I've switched to Ultimate here for consistency's sake. Plus, it's less bulky to read!
> 
> Image Refs can be found in chapter 35.
> 
> Chapter names are being added to help you find certain chapters if you need to go back for something or pick up where you left off, hopefully with easy to understand names. Thank you!

When Shuichi Saihara opened his eyes, there was nothing before him. Nothing at all, and that was unsettling for a few seconds before he let his mind actually begin to process the situation. He was not in a void. He could feel something solid beneath his feet, pressing against the sides of his arms and the caps of his knees, and when he shifted his head a bit he felt his hair shift against what had to be a ceiling close to him.

As much as it had taken him a bit to realize he wasn't in an empty void, he now knew he was in some sort of container. His first instinct was to assume that he was in a coffin, but that wouldn't make sense. Had he perhaps left his paints open and ended up asphyxiating from the fumes? No, of course not.

He was the _Ultimate Artist_ , wasn't he? He wouldn't have been so dumb as to work with any dangerous supplies without properly ventilating his studio. He took a deep breath, then pushed both of his arms out in front of himself. The door opened much more easily than he expected, and he toppled straight to the ground. He tensed his muscles as he pressed his hands against the floor to right himself, only to fall over again in surprise when lifting his head caused his eyes to connect with a girl's kneecaps, as she was crouched before him, and in consequence what lay beyond those kneecaps as well.

"...Well, I guess that you can't be too perverted if you looked away that quickly," The girl noted, then adjusted her position to hold a hand out for him, which he took when he glanced up again. Once he was standing, he got a good look at her. Her outfit was muted, but pretty cute. She had a small magnifying glass hairclip in, "My name's Kaede Akamatsu. What's yours?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm..." He mumbled, looking away from her, "Shuichi Saihara," In the effort of looking away, he noticed the environment, "Is this some sort of classroom?"

"That much is kind of obvious," Kaede giggled, taking another sweeping look around herself, "It hasn't been used in a long time, though. It's completely overgrown... There are even some trees. It has to have been decades, if not centuries since this was actually used for teaching classes..."

"How could you figure all of that out just by looking?" Shuichi asked, adjusting his sweater and wondering if she could make assumptions on his nature as well, just by looking. He was wearing a loose t-shirt stained with paint under the patterned sweater, as he wore the latter to cover up the former.

Kaede looked to him again, tapping her own chin, "Ah, I'm the Ultimate Detective. Well, I've never actually solved a case, since none have come across my path, but my talents of observation got me the title."

"Ah!" Shuichi exclaimed, taking a step back, "That's quite the coincidence! I'm the Ultimate Artist! Funny, that we'd end up in the same place..."

"Upupupu! Not funny at all!" Another voice suddenly joined the conversation. Kaede immediately looked to see that the source was a teddy-bear at about knee height, split black and white down the middle. Shuichi took a few moments to realize the speaker was so short, but it was only a brief time before the thing had the attention of them both, "You see, this is the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles! Do you know what that means? Of course not! Let me explain..."

"I see. So this is a school with the express purpose of gathering students with Ultimate talents," Kaede spoke over the bear's dramatic pause, giving it no time to explain.

"You didn't let me! Just for that, I'm going to let you flounder on your own. I won't explain anything else until you're all together!" It complained.

"I don't care. I don't need you to tell me anything," Kaede rolled her eyes, and the thing disappeared from the room without responding. It probably had nothing nice to say.

"I... Kind of wanted to know," Shuichi gave a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck, "If the bear was going to tell us more about why all us Ultimates have been collected... That would have been nice to know, right?"

Kaede shrugged as she stepped towards the classroom's door, "You couldn't tell? It's not trustworthy. More than that... It's altogether, a liar. In any case, if this really _is_ an Ultimate Academy, then we should take a look around, right? We might find somebody else."

"Good point," Shuichi noted, following her into the hallway. It too was wildly overgrown. He took a peek at the window, which was covered by barbed wire, but still let light in from outside and let him see just a bit out of it, "Ah, it doesn't look like we're on the ground floor, does it?"

"We must be on the second floor," Kaede determined as she took a look as well, "Assuming the floor below us is just as tall as the one we're on, anyway," With that sorted, she continued looking around. There wasn't much on this floor at all; A set of stairs, one classroom aside from the one the pair had just left, and a room that had a magnifying glass on the door. Kaede immediately walked up to it and tried the doorknob, but it clicked in her hand. Locked.

"I dunno what you expected, trying that!" Somebody else spoke up, and Shuichi turned to see somebody wandering out of the other classroom, "I mean, that looks like a room made for you! I'm not holding out for anything so kind to be given to us."

"Who are you?" Shuichi questioned as he approached the newcomer.

"Right, right! I'm Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Magician!" He laughed through his words, then glanced back at the classroom he'd just exited, "I don't know about you guys, but I woke up in a locker. That doesn't bode well, does it? I bet... We got kidnapped by somebody, and now they're going to hold us for ransom! Too bad most of us probably don't have anyone who cares enough to pay for our rescue!"

"Wh-What? How could you know something like that!?" Shuichi demanded, stepping closer to Kokichi, who just smirked back at him as he reached out behind Shuichi's ear, producing a coin.

"Well, maybe I could pay the ransom myself if I did this enough times!" Kokichi teased, waving his free hand, "Of course, I don't know that for sure. In fact, I don't know much about anything that's going on! All I know for sure is who I am, and that I woke up inside of a metal locker. Anyone would jump to conclusions that people with talents like ours could be kidnapped for that purpose... right?"

"Of course," Kaede joined the conversation, stepping away from the door, "Saihara, that's not especially suspicious, to jump to conclusions. But... That robot bear told us that this was an 'Ultimate Academy'. I'd like to think that means whoever brought us here wants to cultivate our talents."

"Cultivate our talents?" Kokichi asked, wide-eyed, "Do you mean... You think we could have been taken here by _that group_?"

"By what group?" Shuichi said, "Not to be rude, but you just keep saying suspicious things."

"If you don't know what I'm talking about..." Kokichi broke out laughing again, clutching his own stomach, "Ah, you're fun! That was a lie. I thought maybe, if there was some group who could have done this, I'd say that and something interesting would happen. Like you'd remember such a group really did exist, or that bear thing you mentioned would show up and get mad at me!"

"Do you just get a rise out of telling lies?" Shuichi asked, taken aback quite literally as he stepped away from Kokichi, face screwed up in confusion.

"Telling lies?" Kokichi asked, pressing a finger to his own cheek, "No, I wouldn't say so. What I revel in is deceiving people. I guess you might think that's the same thing, but there's a big difference! A magician who just tells lies could never be considered Ultimate. Deception, that's a key part of what I do."

"Ah!" One more voice joined the conversation, and all three turned to see a girl in an absurdly short maid dress was speaking, "So there was a second floor after all! Everyone's gathered in the gym, okay? I was asked to come and get you, and I just had to obey... You can give me orders too, if you like. I am the Ultimate Maid, after all..."

"Wow, what a pathetic introduction! You totally skipped your name to just tell us your talent!" Kokichi stepped towards her, hands on his hips, "You must be really devoted to serving, then, if you'd do that much! Then again, maybe that's all an obvious perv like you'd be good for?"

"P-Perv??" The girl exclaimed, clutching her hands to her chest as she looked up at Kokichi from a few steps down, "Ahh! No, my only desire is to fulfill every wish asked of me, I swear! I am Miu Iruma, but feel free to call me whatever you like, as long as you please come with me to the gym to meet with the others, Master!"

"Was that intentional...?" Shuichi mumbled, mostly to himself as he approached the stairs as well and tapped Kokichi's shoulder, speaking at normal volume now, "You can do what you want, but I'm pretty sure Akamatsu and I are both going with Iruma."


	2. Introductions

"Oh, I'll go too! But Iruma's got to do something for me later on," Kokichi said, then stepped past Miu to make his way down the stairs. Miu didn't hesitate to chase after him, so Shuichi and Kaede did similarly. Miu took the lead and brought them to the gym, at which point Shuichi was shocked to see twelve more people there. That many? Or that little? Somehow, the number wasn't what he was expecting.

"So there were more of us after all..." A strangely short man with a strangely deep voice said with a slight chuckle, "I'm not sure why, but I was expecting... That there would be sixteen of us. So I'd assume that we're all here now, with you three."

"I'm Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Detective," Kaede introduced herself, then went on to include the others, "This is Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Artist, and that," She pointed to Kokichi, since he'd wandered off, "Is the Ultimate Magician, Kokichi Ouma."

Kokichi looked up as Kaede pointed and introduced him, waving, "Hi there! That's right, that's me! Thanks Akamatsu. If I had to introduce myself, who knows what story I might have spun!"

"I'm Ryoma Hoshi," The short guy with the deep voice introduced himself in exchange, "I don't know what my ultimate talent is, actually. I may not have one, though it would be weird, wouldn't it, to throw an ordinary person into the Ultimate Academy? Well, not like I care that much."

"Does everybody else have an ultimate talent?" Shuichi asked, but he could already tell just by looking around that at least the majority were obviously displaying their talents in their dress and appearance, "Can everybody introduce themselves?"

"We didn't even get around to all introducing ourselves to each other yet, so that would be a good idea," A bespectacled girl who wore a simple blue sweater-dress over a pair of galaxy patterned leggings spoke up, "As for me, I'm the Ultimate Astronaut, Tsumugi Shirogane! I might look plain to you, but someday my face will go down in history as the one who discovered how to make space travel commonplace. I made a promise to everyone that I'd do that, and someday, I will."

"And I'm Tenko Chabashira!" Her shouting very nearly cut off Tsumugi's final syllable. She looked almost like Indiana Jones in her style of dress, "I'm the Ultimate Anthropologist! I feel like it's such a shame that society has forgotten the ancient peoples who agreed that women were far more valuable than men... It is my duty to spread the tales of the wondrous past!"

"...I guess I'll introduce myself. May as well get it over with. I'm Himiko Yumeno... The Ultimate Tennis Pro is what they call me, but actually, I'm the Ultimate Tennis God!" A childish girl in a tennis skirt befitting her title spoke up, holding a visor hat such that it mostly hid her eyes, "When playing isn't too much of a pain for me to bother, I'm undefeated!"

"Ultimate Tennis God?" Another girl questioned from another spot in the room. She was wearing very simple clothing that didn't seem like it would pass as a uniform ever, being only an anime t-shirt and a skirt to her knees; though maybe if she added the cardigan she held on her arm, it would seem more proper. She didn't look slovenly, at least, "Like... Light?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Himiko glowered.

"Oh, I apologize," The girl held a hand to her chest, "See, I'm Kirumi Tojo. The Ultimate Cosplayer... So forgive me if I let my hobbies get the better of me from time to time. I promise, I'm not a huge nerd who can't talk about normal things, or anything like that..."

"Keh... All of you have such _pedestrian_ talents," Somebody else joined in, and Shuichi pinpointed the voice to a long-haired man dressed in all black. There seemed to be some sort of vest under the hoodie which clung to his form a bit too much to properly conceal that fact, but nothing was in the vest, "Meanwhile, I... Am the Ultimate Assassin. My talents are known far and wide, under a number of aliases. For me, it is an art. Korekiyo Shinguji, however, is my real name. I've given it to you in a show of faith."

"Assassin!?" A huge man questioned in an innocent voice. He was dressed in what appeared to be martial arts practice attire, which seemed... Uncomfortable, to wear for a long period of time, but the man looked unbothered, at least by that, "Gonta thinks.... Assassin is no good! Will stop you with the power of Wolf Aikido if Gonta must!"

"Ehhh? What the Hell is Wolf Aikido?" Kokichi prodded, suddenly popping up next to Gonta and poking at his arm, "Sounds made up! If it is, can you teach me? I love learning about fake things!"

"Not fake! Gonta learn it from wolves!" He moved away from Kokichi, waving his arms in his defense, "Sorry! Will introduce... Um... I am Gonta Gokuhara! Ultimate Aikido Master!"

"Wow, I could just see your hair starting to singe with your head heating up from using proper grammar there!" Kokichi taunted him more, but before anything could come of it, found somebody else had spoken up in a loud and intrusive manner.

"I cannot allow that to go on!" A boy with pure white hair who wore an odd cloak draped over one shoulder pointed at Kokichi and Gonta, "Misbehaving in that manner serves only to divide us, when we, as ultimates, should be united! I know what I'm talking about because I'm the Ultimate Supreme Leader, Kiibo Idabashi! Thanks to my dad's awesome homeschooling, I'm going to be the prime minister someday, and becoming president of the student council is the first step! Please vote for me!"

"Well, you've won me over... But if you think about it, what use is a student council if there's only sixteen students?" Another one of the boys spoke in a light and airy tone. He had pale green hair, and his sense of style was... Bizarre. He had a number of piercings and wore far too many belts, as well as black boots with a number of buckles and a platform on the shorter side, but the rest of his outfit was in lighter colors and gave him somewhat of a sense of femininity.

"What are you saying!?" Kiibo questioned, offended by the very notion.

"Well, a student council's main duty is to help manage the school's clubs, working with the faculty to determine budgets, as well as planning school trips," The dissenter answered, unfazed, "Ah, everyone's looking at me... I'll introduce myself, then. I'm Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate Inventor. It's nice to meet you all. And... Well, I don't know if she'll introduce herself if we left her to her own devices, so I'll defer to the girl in the corner."

"...Me?" Said girl questioned, turning to face the rest of the students. Several of them were surprised to see that there was something... off about her appearance, "Oh, Okay. I'm M4-K1, you can call me Maki if you'd like. I'm the Ultimate Robot. That's all you need to know."

"That was an underwhelming introduction from somebody so bizarre," Another girl said, drawing the attention of the room. She was dressed in a white polo shirt and grey skirt, without much in the way of accessories. She looked like she was about to perform in a concert band, or maybe go knocking on doors passing out evangelical pamphlets. Everyone was soon to realize the truth was both, "Well, anyway! I'm the Ultimate Pianist, Angie Yonaga! My melodies will help me to spread the word of Atua across the whole world, bringing light into the lives of the lost!"

"You know what I think brings light into the lives of the lost more than anything else?" The only person in the room who hadn't yet said anything finally spoke up. He had a full-sized bug net strapped across his back, and wore a jacket that hung loose over a tank top. He was definitely dressed to go bug-hunting at any time, with his pants tucked into his socks, a well-known precaution against poisonous ferns, "Beetles! They're super shiny!"

"...Beetles? Seriously?" Tsumugi asked, furrowing her brow, "Do you honestly think that beetles are more impressive than the stars?"

"Well, maybe not. But a beetle found on another planet totally would be!" He gave a thumbs-up, "I'm Kaito Momota! King of the Bugs! Well, technically I'm called the Ultimate Entomologist, but nobody likes bugs more than I do. Everything from the shiniest beetle to the frondiest centipede to the most drab butterfly, they're all amazing!"

"Upupupu!" The robot bear from earlier made a sudden appearance in the room, waving once it had arrived, "Hi everybody! It's my turn to introduce myself, isn't it? Now that you've all done it... It's only fair. Okay, then! I'm Monokuma... And I'm the Ultimate Headmaster! That's right, you bastards. I'm the one in charge of this Ultimate Academy. So prepare your assholes for the big reveal! I've brought you here to this school for the perfect environment to improve your ultimate talents... But there's another reason too! What could that reason be? Well, it's time for a Killing Game, of course~!"


	3. The Killing Game

"Hey, hey, Monokuma!" Kokichi raised his hand high in the air, "Please tell your lovable students right now! What is a Killing Game, huh?"

"Why are you just accepting him as your headmaster so easily?" Maki questioned in a flat tone, "He doesn't seem very much like any sort of teacher at all."

"Uwahh! I never thought I'd be experiencing lateral discrimination this early on in the game! Just because I'm a bear robot and not a human robot like you, you have to be so cruel to me...? Ohh, I'm falling into despair already, and we haven't even reached act one!" Monokuma whined, but then perked right back up again, "Just kidding. I don't really care."

"You didn't answer Ouma's question," Kaede glared at it, arms crossed over her chest. As friendly as she was, she _certainly_ didn't trust Monokuma the least bit.

"Fine, I'll explain. But not because you asked me, Achey-matsu. Because you gotta know anyway! The Killing Game is exactly how it sounds. A game where you face off against each other, in which it's kill or be killed. The basic rules are very simple. There is no way to leave this academy's campus through normal means! But there is one way to escape, and that's to kill somebody... And get away with it."

"...How very droll," Korekiyo spoke up, "You speak as if that's difficult to accomplish."

"Of course it's difficult!" Monokuma shouted, "It's limited suspects, limited environments, and you're all Ultimates! There's even an Ultimate Detective in the mix, which means that getting away with murder is a lot harder than it sounds, even for the Ultimate Assassin! After all, you can't just slip away. There's going to be a trial every time a body is found. Everyone's the defense, the prosecution, the judge and the jury! And if the wrong person is found guilty, that's when the blackened escapes... Of course, in that case, everyone who hasn't won will be killed. In something called the Killing Game, that's only fair."

"You say every time a body is found... As if we're actually going to participate. And as if you expect that nobody could get away with it," Kaede glared at Monokuma as she spoke, "If you really thought we'd participate in this Killing Game based on a motivation like that, but then go ahead and say something that implies you don't expect the blackened could ever escape..."

"Well, no, getting off of this campus? That's no motive at all. After all, though it's still under construction, this place was built especially for all of you, to cultivate your ultimate talents. I can't imagine why you'd ever have an urge to leave so strong that you would kill for it! Well, that is, unless you realized there was something important you needed to do in the outside world... But here's the thing. High School is three years, right? So you'll graduate in three years, with your talents cultivated! After all, there's nothing out there for you which can't wait three years... right?"

"Nishishi! The way that you say that makes it sound like you know something we don't about what we've got waiting for us outside of this school. That's real funny, though! I know I have absolutely nothing for me out there, so I'll be glad to work on my talent in this school. I guess... Other people have connections though, right? So I guess we just can't know, if somebody will end up participating in this killing game..."

"Upupu! That's right, I know everything about you bastards!" Monokuma shouted with a sharp cackle, "No matter how great this Ultimate Academy is for you, I know how to make you participate in the Killing Game. I think we're going to get along, Kokichi Ouma!"

"Nah," Kokichi shook his head, "I wouldn't want to get along with such a freaky robot bear who wants to make us participate in some lame Killing Game! Those types of things are only fun when they occur naturally."

"Awh, looks like we have different tastes in entertainment... That's a shame. I could never be friends with someone who thinks that my Semester of Mutual Killing is lame," Monokuma said.

"I can't speak for the males among us, but I know that us girls would never do something like participate in a Killing Game!" Tenko spoke up, pointing straight at Monokuma, "No matter what you do, that sort of thing is just unforgivable!"

"We'll see if you keep thinking that way. I mean, I'm not going to force you to participate against your will. I'm sure that whenever a murder occurs, it will be at your own decision. Free will is an important part of the Killing Game! For example, I would never do something like say to you that if a murder didn't occur by a certain time, you'd all be eliminated. I wouldn't need to do that, though."

"Well..." Rantaro joined the conversation, running a hand back through his hair, "You can say that however much you like, but I honestly have nothing I cherish so much that I would _kill_. I doubt anyone here does, especially with graduation on the horizon. Three years may seem like a long time, but I can only imagine it will go by in the blink of an eye while devoted to our passions, and in good company."

"Speaking of that," Kaede added in, addressing Monokuma now, "I saw a door with a magnifying glass on it, upstairs. Does that have anything to do with cultivating our talents?"

"Just what I'd expect from the Ultimate Detective!" Monokuma laughed again, "That's your Ultimate Lab. All of you have them, but a bunch are still under construction. Sorry! After finishing these entrance ceremonies, only three will be open. The Ultimate Detective Lab upstairs, the Ultimate Tennis Court outside, and the Ultimate Inventor Lab in the basement, adjacent to the AV room."

"It certainly sounds like we have a lot of amenities! Atua smiles upon us," Angie giggled as she spoke up again, "There's a games room and a library in the basement, too. I woke up down there, before I came right here, so I don't know what else there is..."

"A dining hall, obviously! With fully stocked kitchens, though I'm not about to cook for you," Monokuma stated, "Also, dorms with individual bathrooms for each of you, a school store, a warehouse with all the supplies you'd ever need for a fulfilling school life... Ah, and there's also a fountain with a beautiful statue of me in it! That's probably the best part!"

"A kitchen, huh?" Miu questioned, stepping forward with her hands on her hips as her short skirt swayed with the movement of her legs, "Well, I am the ultimate maid after all! I can cook for everyone... Ah, just the thought of such a huge workload makes me weak in the knees! I'll pour all my love for everybody into grueling, work-intensive meals..." She was drooling.

"Now, now," Kirumi stepped forward, slipping her cardigan on over the t-shirt, "Just because you are the Ultimate Maid, Iruma, doesn't mean you need to take it all on your shoulders. Wouldn't it be more efficient to split meal duty between those of us who know how to cook? Myself, for example. I'm not great at cooking from scratch, but I can kick any pre-made food up several notches. Once you try my Cup Noodle, you'd never be able to stand bland, normal Cup Noodle ever again... If I do say so myself."

"C-C-Cup noodle!?" Miu raised her arms in defense, "Tojo! You, and everyone, deserve far better than something created so quickly, so painlessly! Food can only truly be worth eating if it was created from both the love and intensive hard work of the chef!"

"Well," Kirumi twirled the end of her bangs, glaring, "Who's to say my variation of Cup Noodle isn't made with love and intensive hard work? In order to make it as great as I claim it to be, I must slow-cook pork for several days... Chop green onions, and mince ginger too."

"At that point... You may as well just make normal ramen," Kaito pointed out.

"Hey, you bastards! I get it that you wanna get on with this love-fest, but I wasn't done talking! I'm also giving each of you a Monopad, that you can find in your rooms! It will automatically collect any information you learn. A map of the school will be built on as you explore it and as construction finishes, you'll get refreshers on what you know about all your classmates too. Face it, fifteen friends is a lot to keep track of! And... If you ever do decide to play the Killing Game, it'll collect evidence for you too. Okay, now I'm done! Bye-bye!"


	4. Daily Life: Day One (Kiibo)

Shuichi decided, once Monokuma left, to check out his dorm. He and Kaede parted ways, since she wanted to take a look at her now-opened Ultimate Lab. Rantaro as well, made his way to the basement to see his own. Himiko didn't seem especially interested in going to see her Tennis Court, but Tenko seemed to be dragging her there anyway.

Shuichi found his room, and it wasn't bad. There was a rather large, comfortable-looking bed, a nighstand, a closet, and a coffee table between the bed and a television, as well as a couch offset to the side. It was actually a very nice living space. The bathroom, when he checked it, wasn't a compacted version either. There was the toilet and sink, then another door to the shower and bath. For a school that they weren't allowed to leave, Shuichi found himself thinking how he could actually have a pleasant time living here.

He wondered when his own lab would be opened, and hoped it would be soon. He already missed painting after what had to only be a couple days at most without having done any. Though his lab wasn't open yet, he realized that the warehouse could at least have notebooks and pencils, if nothing else. He left the dorm again now that he'd finished scouting it out, only to run into Kiibo as soon as he returned to the courtyard.

"Ah, Saihara!" Kiibo greeted him, walking up, "I have a favor to ask of you! Despite Amami's statement that a student council would be unnecessary in this situation, I nonetheless intend to become, if not president, at least our class representative. As the Ultimate Artist, do you think that you could assist me in creating campaign posters?"

"I could do that," Shuichi agreed, though a bit caught off-guard, "Actually, I was just about to go to the warehouse to check if there were any supplies I could use, since my lab isn't open yet."

"I will help you search!" Kiibo volunteered, "And I do understand your concerns. Were my lab available, then I would most certainly be elected student council president. As it is, I have some doubts... I have no campaign supplies whatsoever! Your posters will be so spectacularly helpful, with that in mind."

"Ah, I'm glad that I could help out," Shuichi gave a nervous chuckle as he started to make his way towards the warehouse, "But don't thank me yet. I still don't know if I'll even find any art supplies..."

"I have faith in this academy, Saihara!" Kiibo assured him, and as they reached the door for the warehouse, one more person stepped up to join the conversation.

"What are the two of you up to?" Kirumi asked as she moved to stand beside Kiibo, leaning so that both of them were in her vision, "Just taking a look around?"

"Saihara is searching for art supplies to aid me in my campaign to be Student Council President!" Kiibo explained, pointing towards the door of the warehouse, "I need posters, and he is capable of creating them! How about you, Tojo?"

"Ah, I was going to see what was in the warehouse, too. As the Ultimate Cosplayer, I'm very innovative. A huge part of creating cosplays is to use items for something other than their intended purpose... So even if I have no reason to continue making costumes while at this academy, I'm sure I could continue improving on that aspect of my talent with whatever's in the warehouse. So, Kiibo, you've decided to become student council president in spite of there being no such thing in place at this academy?"

"It is the responsibility of students to create student leadership to guide and assist the rest of the student body by taking on the tasks which nobody else would do, such as paperwork and diplomatic negotiations with the faculty!" Kiibo opened the door to the warehouse, and both Shuichi and Kirumi stepped in, "So will you support me, Tojo?"

"Support you? I suppose, I could technically create a secretary outfit and serve as yours, but that job mostly consists of fielding phone calls and making appointments, which I doubt will occur much with such a small number of people," Kirumi shrugged then as she stepped over towards the warehouse shelves, "So I suppose there's no easy way for me to offer my support, but you'll have my vote. Well, there's nobody running against you, so naturally you have everyone's vote. Do you even need to run?"

"Were I just to take the position without getting input from everybody here on if they find me suitable, I would be no president at all, but a mere monarch, or dictator. That would be fitting of the Ultimate Leader, but as the Ultimate Supreme Leader I must not only maintain my duties, but a high approval rating!" Kiibo explained with a smirk as he crossed his arms, "So let anyone run against me, and I will prove myself, as is necessary for due democratic process."

"Don't let Ouma hear you say that..." Shuichi mumbled as he searched through the extensive shelves of the warehouse. There was so much here, he didn't even know where to begin. It didn't seem well-organized at all, but at least it was extensive enough that he became certain he'd find _some_ variety of art supply, "He'd probably run against you just for the fun of it..."

"Kokichi Ouma...?" Kiibo questioned, then seemed to think for a moment before exclaiming, "He would be a worthy opponent! The Ultimate Magician implies a degree of showmanship and crowd-pleasing. Not to mention, the deceptive ways we have witnessed from him thusfar, he's an absolute wildcard. Voters like that, sometimes. And unlike me, with a platform built on integrity, he would have the willingness and the sway to make promises he could never possibly deliver on... Exactly the sort of opponent I may face in my race to become Prime Minister!"

"It's obvious you've put a lot of thought into your future in politics. No wonder the Ultimate Initiative picked you, though I wonder why you were titled the Ultimate Supreme Leader rather than the Ultimate Politician..." Kirumi said, moving to aid Shuichi in his search, since she'd have plenty of time to figure out what was useful to her another time.

"Well, I think it makes sense. Ultimate Supreme Leader implies my ability not just to run, but to win. However, I couldn't be called Ultimate Future Prime Minister, seeing as that's presumptuous. Ultimate Supreme Leader stretches from my past positions, to any future ones I may achieve!" Kiibo was wildly enthusiastic about his ultimate talent, and Shuichi found it somewhat endearing, though here he was looking for art supplies; all of them were passionate about something, and that was what led them to be so skilled.

"Ah!" Shuichi exclaimed as he found the shelf he was looking for. There were cheaper sketchbooks, mechanical pencils, pink erasers, and some simple watercolors along with children's colored pencils and markers. All of them were poor quality as art supplies went, the type purchased for use in academic projects more than art electives, but it was still something. Shuichi could work with this, "Idabashi, your campaign posters are 'go'!"

"You found supplies! That's great! I'm happy both for my campaign and for the fact that you'll be able to indulge your talent!" Kiibo was practically vibrating in place with his enthusiastic excitement. Shuichi just gave a nervous laugh as he walked back over, having placed the items into a bag that he'd found earlier in his search efforts, "Well, I'm going to stay here with Tojo and maybe we can work on cataloging what's available here in the warehouse! I guess you'll want to be on your way, so I'll see you later. Have fun!"

"I will. Thanks, Idabashi," Shuichi said with a nod before he returned to his room again, just dropping off the supplies for now. He still had the energy to keep exploring this place for now, so he went back out almost immediately. He wanted to see how Kaede was liking her lab, he decided, so he made his way up to the second floor, and knocked on the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Post Speed Increases


	5. Daily Life: Day One (Kaede + Tsumugi)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, current posting schedule is 2 a day, whenever I'm able to post them... Till I run out of backlog

Kaede opened the door, and smiled when she saw Shuichi there, "Ah, Saihara! Hi. You didn't need to knock, you know. These labs don't lock at all. I guess it's so if you want to get into a new hobby, you could technically use somebody else's ultimate lab, if they've got your interest as a talent... Though, I guess I'm just theorizing."

"Isn't theorizing what an Ultimate Detective is supposed to do?" Shuichi asked, and prompted a laugh from Kaede with the statement.

"I guess you're right. Anyway, you can come in!" Kaede stepped to the side to let Shuichi in, gesturing around. The room looked a bit like a traincar, but with cabinets lined up on the walls, "Isn't this so cool? It's just like a Poirot mystery! There's a bookshelf full of famous detective novels, and another with true crime files, and then there's a bunch of developing chemicals for testing the nature of materials... A microscope... Also, some poisons with comprehensive labels. I bet those are for testing against symptoms found during autopsy-"

She stopped herself, scratching her cheek with a slight blush as she looked away, "I mean... Well, it's just so cool, isn't it? I don't think I'll ever need to use this stuff, and the poisons are probably fake... Like, maybe they imitate symptoms, but aren't actually lethal. Either way, it's obvious they're for investigative purposes, right?"

Before Shuichi could give an answer, Tsumugi spoke up from one of the traincar-style benches that she was sat on, "I like it in here too! Literature is an important part of understanding the world around us, and using chemicals to analyze materials is also a huge part of investigating space, since we need to do things like determine what elements are present in a meteorite... Until my lab opens, Akamatsu's been kind enough to say I can use hers as often as I like."

"I'm glad, Shirogane!" Shuichi gave her a smile with his friendly response, then looked to Kaede again, "So this is what the labs are like... I can't wait till mine is ready. This place seems like it really suits you... You're so excited about it, too."

"Of course I'm excited," Kaede grinned at him, "And you'll be excited about your lab once it's available too, I just know it. This is the Ultimate Academy, made specifically for us. I don't care what Monokuma says about a Killing Game, I trust in the hearts of my classmates. That's what we are after all, classmates! And I know that once we graduate in three years, we'll be even more skilled and ready to contribute to society!"

"You're really optimistic about this," Shuichi noted, putting his hands in his pockets as he approached the poison cabinet, "Aren't you even a little bit worried? I mean... I don't see any reason we'd want to leave this place before it's time, but that doesn't mean everyone thinks the same way... And the way Monokuma was talking made it sound like it thinks the Killing Game is inevitable."

"Well, we know this isn't the first Killing Game ever," Kaede said, "I don't know how, but I know that, and it sounded like everybody else did too. Like Ouma. Maybe, whatever Killing Game happened before makes it think that we'll give in, but we're different people than that. I'm really confident it'll be fine."

"...You're right," Shuichi sighed, stepping away from the cabinet again, "Sorry, I'm just paranoid. But you're right, Akamatsu."

"I am, aren't I?" Kaede pressed her fingers together, leaning towards him with that smile still on her face, "Anyway, it doesn't make sense for a school to be built for us, with labs for us to improve our talents, only for us to die here. I bet that Monokuma's just playing a mean joke on us."

"Monokuma almost seemed nice," Tsumugi noted without looking up from her book, "Not trustworthy, but nice. Do you think maybe it was just a lie for fun, like what Ouma was doing when we met him?"

"Oh yeah!" Kaede rushed over towards Tsumugi now, "Shirogane, that's a good point! That must be it. Wouldn't you agree, Saihara?"

"Er... Yeah, I could see that being the case," Shuichi muttered, but then froze and pulled his Monopad out from his pocket, flipping through the menus, "But... The rules for the Killing Game are listed here on the Monopad. Why go through the trouble of putting the rules down if it's just a joke?"

"Stop being such a downer, Saihara!" Tsumugi looked up now, fixing him with a glare, "Why are we even talking about this...? It's not like it matters. If Monokuma's serious, or if it's not... Either way, the Killing Game isn't going to happen, so why are you acting like it's still possible?"

"Shirogane," Kaede put a hand on her shoulder, then locked eyes with Shuichi, "It's because he's scared, that's all. It's easy to think about the worst thing that could happen... And you're scared too, right? That's why you want him to shut up. It's because the only way to not be afraid is to put it out of your mind, but it is important to think about the possibilities. If we ignore what's possible, then we can't stand up to it."

"Oh..." Tsumugi mumbled, looking back to the book that she was reading, unsure what else to say.

"I'm sorry," Shuichi turned away, rubbing his arm with a grimace, "I swear, I didn't mean to upset you at all. It's just... I'm the Ultimate Artist, you know? If anything bad did happen, I wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. I can't help but worry, in that case..."

"I know," Kaede gave a nod alongside her answer, "Well, how about this, then? I swear on my life, I'll do everything I can to protect you, no matter what happens. Whether a Killing Game somehow comes to fruition, or you end up pissing off Gokuhara, I'll work hard to keep you safe... You and everybody else! That's how a detective can be useful, before any mysteries to solve arise."

"That's such a huge promise!" Tsumugi brought one hand up to cover her mouth then took a deep breath and steeled herself, 'Well, I am a scientist. Just because I haven't been through the physical training to go up in a space shuttle... I can be useful too. I'll protect you too, Saihara! And you too, Akamatsu. I'll do my best to use my talent for everyone's happiness."

"You guys..." Shuichi clutched his chest with one hand, "Thank you... I'm not afraid anymore, knowing you have my back. Ah, I need to express these emotions somehow... I'm going to go back to my room. I found some cheap art supplies in the warehouse, so I can still draw before I get my lab. I... Can't use my talent for something as great as you can, but I'm going to use it anyway."

"That's the spirit, Saihara!" Kaede pointed at him with both fingers, "See? I just know we're all going to have some fun here."

"Heh... You're right. I'll see you in the dining hall at dinnertime?" He asked, and after receiving a confirming nod from Kaede, bid her and Tsumugi goodbye before returning to his room again. He sketched for a while, until he'd gotten down on paper the overwhelming emotions he'd felt at Kaede and Tsumugi's promises. He just couldn't handle how touched he was that those two would decide to use their talents for the good of everybody, and that they'd done it because they realized how afraid he was.

They'd realized it before he even did, but now that he knew, he was able to get his fear out onto the paper as well, and found himself truly calmed by the time he was done. It still seemed to be only a bit past noon, based on the position of the sun outside the cage which enclosed the campus. He decided he'd check out the other labs, and his first choice was Rantaro's in the basement, since he could look at the rest of the amenities down there while he was at it.


	6. Daily Life: Day One (Rantaro + Kokichi)

Despite Kaede having told him that knocking was unnecessary, Shuichi found himself knocking on the Ultimate Inventor Lab's door which was adjacent to the AV room. Within moments, the door opened, but it wasn't Rantaro who opened it. Just as Tsumugi had been hanging out in Kaede's lab, it seemed that Rantaro had company in his. Kokichi was the one to pull the door open.

"Saihara! Hey, what brings you here, huh? Amami's very busy with the Ultimate Robot back here," Kokichi leaned a little so Shuichi could see that Rantaro was busy inspecting Maki, who was standing in place with a book to distract herself. Shuichi had to assume that one was from the library, since it wasn't one of the classic mysteries found in Kaede's lab.

"Oh, Saihara! You can come in if you want," Rantaro glanced at the door and gave a wave before returning his attention to Maki, "I'm not trying to upgrade Maki or anything, so I don't really need to focus. I'm just trying to figure out how she was built."

"And you're... Okay with this, Maki?" Shuichi questioned as he stepped in, keeping an eye on her rather than looking around the rest of the lab.

"I don't really care. My talent is as the Ultimate Robot. One of the main benefits of robots existing is for others in the inventing community to learn from them, so of course I would allow the Ultimate Inventor to examine my makeup. I wasn't built for any purpose other than behaving in a way that may, under different circumstances, pass a turing test," She glanced away, "My ambitions are only to learn and grow, so of course I'll indulge others with more complex ambitions."

"You say that, but... Doesn't it seem at least a little weird to just let somebody examine your body? Even if you _are_ a robot," Shuichi said, frowning.

"Not especially. Humans have Doctors, yes? So Amami is, in my eyes as a robot, the Ultimate Doctor. That makes him quite trustworthy," Maki explained, "Were you expecting I'd say something like 'I don't have the emotional capacity for embarrassment'? Well, I do. If you or Ouma were to be present for an in-depth analysis, then I might have to kill you out of embarrassment. Anyway, though, this is just a simple analysis of my components. Like a routine eyesight or hearing check for a human."

"She said it better than I ever could!" Rantaro said with a soft laugh, then stood up straight and crossed his arms, "Anyway though, Maki, you're free to go. Your components are mostly flexible alloys, so if you ever want to be upgraded in any way, I should be able to do that for you."

"Ah, thank you. I may take you up on that offer..." Maki gave him a nod, but her face remained blank, "At some point in the future. Right now, I'm comfortable with my hardware and software, but at least when it comes to the latter, I receive wireless updates all the time. Some of it might need some tweaking."

"I'll help you with that anytime. Take care, Maki!" Rantaro gave a wave as she exited the room, then turned to Shuichi, "So, Saihara. Can I help you with anything?"

"Ah, not really," Shuichi shook his head, "I was just thinking I'd take a look at all the labs so far. I already went to see Akamatsu's, it's pretty cool. Oh, and are you going to join us all for dinner? I was thinking, it'd be nice to all eat together, if possible. Akamatsu and Shirogane already agreed..."

"Gladly," Rantaro chuckled, going to sit down at the stool beside a workbench with tools organized neatly into little plastic bins against the wall, "Then, I can start taking requests, too. This lab is very extensive, and I should be able to make any simple thing anyone might want, and some more complicated things too."

"What sort of things have you invented before, anyway?" Shuichi asked, leaning over Rantaro's shoulder without realizing it.

"Amami's invented all sorts of amazing things as the Ultimate Inventor! One time before we came here, I even commissioned a special magic trick from him!" Kokichi butted into the conversation, bouncing on his heels, "Oh, just kidding. I don't think any of us ever met before this Ultimate Academy."

"Truth be told, a lot of my inventions have actually been cosmetic electronics," Rantaro brought a hand up to cover his face, "I grew up with a lot of sisters, and I always heard complaints from them about how annoying their hairdryers and stuff were, so I made improvements on them..."

"Oh! You must have created the no-heat blowdryer!" Shuichi exclaimed, then found himself blushing as well at the admittance that he knew what that was, "I mean, I'm a painter... Heat can hurt a lot of the materials that I use, but the no-heat blowdryer can dry them quickly without causing any damage, meaning that I don't have to let my racks get overfilled..."

"I'm so glad you could get a use out of my product," Rantaro let a grin spread across his face, "Most of what I've made is that sort of thing, at least, most of what I've patented. I mess around with a lot of stuff, which is how I'm so confident in my abilities... But I never know if there's demand for a product unless someone tells me directly that they need something like it. That's why I never tried to patent anything like my pancake synthesizer..."

"P-Pancake synthesizer?" Kokichi questioned, frozen in place, "You mean to tell me you created something so amazing, and never thought to share it with the world...?"

"Well, I know the world could use a device that turns saltwater into food. I was trying to improve upon the design so it could make something other than just pancakes," Rantaro explained, "But I remember how I made it. I could create a new one, if you wanted to have it in your dorm or something."

"I would appreciate nothing else more in the world. If I spent even one week living with a pancake synthesizer in my room... Then I could die happy," Kokichi's voice somehow had a malevolent, scheming tone to it as he said that, but then he switched completely, "Anyway, that conversation's over. Saihara, you wanna blow this popsicle stand with me and go check out that tennis court?"

"Awh, I was hoping to have some company a little longer..." Rantaro complained, "But if you want to leave, I guess I'll see you at dinner."

"It's not as if you aren't welcome to come too," Kokichi rolled his eyes, "I'm just totally bored of your lab, Amami! All this mechanical stuff's cool at first, but now it just feels kind of stuffy. It all smells like oil and metal, and stuff. I'm a growing boy, I need fresh air!"

"I'm pretty sure by the time you reach high school, you've done all the growing that you're going to do," Rantaro mumbled, staring at the far wall, but then gave his answer, "Well, thanks for the invitation, but I'd like to make sure everything in here is organized first, before I go anywhere else. If I have to do that alone, then so be it," He sighed, leaning against his own hand.

"Geeze, Amami! Playing the pity card like that is low, even for you!" Kokichi teased, but then stepped up and pressed his hands against the workbench, leaning forward to meet Rantaro's eyes, "Well, I can't stay mad at that face! I guess I'll stick around here after all, but only because you're giving me those Ultimate Puppy Eyes!"

"I... Didn't think I was giving Ultimate Puppy Eyes, or Puppy Eyes at all for that matter," Rantaro looked away, "Really, do what you want, okay? I was a little disappointed because I thought you were interested in being friends when you followed me down here."

"Become friends? That was a lie. I followed you because I didn't want to leave you and Maki alone together! Robots are super scary, especially within the domain of the Killing Game!" Kokichi explained, then stood back up and bent at the waist to show Rantaro a sweet, innocent grin, "Well, maybe it was only half a lie. I wouldn't wanna protect you from the scary robot if we weren't friends, right, Amami?"

Shuichi and Rantaro exchanged a look which said 'I have no idea what to make of this guy'. That was the only possible impression to get from Kokichi, it seemed. Shuichi took a deep breath, then reached for the door, "Uh, well, I am going to head out, since I wanted to check out a few other things... I was going to visit the library before the tennis court, though."

"You were?" Kokichi asked, holding both his hands behind his back as he straightened up, "Oh, okay, then I'll stay with Amami after all. The library's just as stuffy as this room, so I may as well just stay here with the more pathetic of my two precious friends! Get it, Saihara? That's you and Amami. Well, unless I'm lying about that, since it is pretty weird to have any friends at all, let alone precious ones within three hours of meeting a bunch of new people!"

Shuichi looked between the two, mouthed 'Good luck' to Rantaro, and left the Ultimate Inventor Lab.�


	7. Daily Life: Day One (Ryoma + Kaito)

With the strangeness of the Ultimate Inventor Lab finished, Shuichi walked across the hallway from the AV room to the library. He noticed that there was a door between the Game room and the AV room, but that it stuck when he tried to use it, so anyone who wanted to move between the two would have to go around, through the hallway. That seemed like a pain.

In any case, though, it was easy to get to the library from the AV room, since the doors were right across from each other. As soon as Shuichi opened the sliding door for the library, he was hit by the smell of old books and dust. Well, Kaede did say that the classrooms upstairs hadn't been used in decades, so it made sense the amenities wouldn't have been either.

The first thing he found strange was that Kaito was sitting on top of a bookshelf. It wasn't strange for Kaito to be in the library, given his talent, but the position he was in seemed less than ideal for reading, though he had a large book open on his lap and seemed engrossed in it. Shuichi was afraid to get his attention, for fear that if he startled him, he might fall right off of the shelf. It was from the floor to nearly the ceiling, too.

The second thing that was strange was that Ryoma was in the room as well, on the floor, flipping through an atlas of the world. That seemed safer, so Shuichi approached him, "Hey, Hoshi. What're you reading?"

"Well, I'm not so much reading as staving off boredom. It's an atlas," Ryoma answered, turning the page to tap his finger against the page, "But... I think it's old. The landmasses don't seem right. What do you think?"

"You're right, it does seem weird," Shuichi agreed, sitting down across from Ryoma to look at the atlas, "Does this library have any fiction in it...?"

"It doesn't. If it did, why would I be reading an atlas? Everything is heavy textbooks, encyclopedias... Over my head," Ryoma shrugged, then looked up at Kaito, "Meanwhile, that guy can understand these books, but the idiot got too involved in the text to remember that he was all the way up there."

"Do you think that we should help him?" Shuichi asked, looking up as well.

"Yes," Ryoma decided, standing up, "I couldn't do it myself, but here's what we can do. You can move the ladder over to him and get his attention... And I'll stand at the bottom to serve as cushioning if either of you fall down."

"Wouldn't that hurt you, if it happened?" Shuichi asked, furrowing his brow, but he also stood.

"Not too much," Ryoma said, shrugging, "It won't kill me, though I'd be fine with that too... If I get hurt, I'm sure that Iruma could fix me up with something from the warehouse. She seems to me like a very capable maid, to have earned the Ultimate title. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yeah, I guess," Shuichi nodded, then moved the ladder to where Kaito was and started to climb it. True to his word, Ryoma stood right at the bottom, poised to move if the potential fall occurred in a different direction. Shuichi reached the top step, and tapped the side of Kaito's leg, "Momota!"

"Wh-!" Kaito was surprised, but didn't have an overly physical reaction. He blinked a few times, then turned to look at Shuichi, "Oh, Saihara! What's up dude?"

"Momota, are you aware that you're sitting on top of a really tall bookshelf? And that you kicked the ladder away from you?" Shuichi asked, looking at him with worry.

Kaito glanced around, then back to Shuichi, "Huh, I guess that is what's happening here. I found this big entomology textbook and I was just so excited to read it I guess I couldn't even think to move from where I found it! Thanks for coming to get me down. I probably would have been stuck here right through dinnertime, and that would suck. I can't cook for myself at _all_ unless it's on a camp stove."

"Thank Hoshi. He wanted to help you when he first found you like this, but needed a second person in case you fell down when you got snapped out of it," Shuichi pointed towards the floor, then started to climb down the ladder, "Come on down. If you're that absent-minded when reading about bugs, maybe you should take the book to the dining hall and read it there? That way, there's no way you'll miss dinner."

"Hey, you're right!" Kaito grinned as he tucked the book under his arm and started to follow Shuichi down the ladder, "Plus, maybe if I hang out there then Iruma will decide to bring me something, too... Like some bepis!"

"B-bepis?" Shuichi asked, having no idea what Kaito was talking about.

"Dude, you don't know bepis? It's my favorite soda!" Kaito burst out laughing once he got to the ground, "Well, maybe you're more of a cola-cola products guy?"

"Ah, yeah, that's it," Shuichi said, "I do like cola-cola, It's got a lot of caffeine. I don't tend to watch television or anything though, or... Leave the house much, so I don't tend to see advertising. If I don't personally use something, I probably won't recognize the brand name."

"So the Ultimate Artist was a hermit? I guess that makes sense, but you're not allowed to do that anymore! You have to leave your dorm room to make friends all the time. I won't let you just hide inside all day. You'll come with me bug-hunting!"

"Ah, are there any woods on campus? I think usually, cool bugs are found in forests, right?" Shuichi wasn't keen on bug-hunting, and he had his fingers crossed that there wouldn't actually be anywhere for him to be dragged along on campus.

"I have no idea," Kaito shrugged, reaching the ground, "But if there is, you're coming with me, no ifs, ands, or buts about it!" He gave a thumbs-up, "Because we'll become friends, Saihara! You had the great idea that I should read in the dining hall, so I owe you at least that much."

"Well, okay," Shuichi said, "I'll go with you to the dining hall, and I guess when I go to check out Yumeno's tennis court, I'll see if there are any woods on campus too. Does that work?"

"Dude, yeah, that's great! I knew you were a good pick for me to be friends with," Kaito exclaimed, already leading the way out of the library. Shuichi quickened his step to catch up and keep up with him as they made their way towards the dining hall, "Hey, Saihara, when do you think my lab's gonna open? And when's yours gonna open? Hey! If we catch any cool bugs, would you draw them?"

"As long as the bug was in a container, I could definitely do that," Shuichi said.

"Why? Saihara, you scared of bugs? If you are, I have a great idea for some exposure therapy-"

"I'm not scared of bugs," Shuichi was telling the truth. Mostly, they were just a pain. Especially when they got into his studio, "I just mean, if it wasn't in a container, it would move around too much. I'd have trouble drawing it if it was moving in the first place, it would get in my way, and I might get distracted and let it escape. So it would definitely have to be in a container, right?"

"Oh yeah, good point," Kaito agreed, "Well, I have one container on me... I guess there'd be more in my lab, once it opens up. If that's the case, then I can't wait!"

"Heh... Well," Shuichi looked up as they reached the dining hall, "I'll see you later, Momota. Enjoy your book. I'll report back on if I find anywhere for a bug hunt... But you know, I may not be very useful at that. I'm not athletic at all, and like I said, I don't go outside a lot. That really means I'm not outdoorsy."

"That doesn't matter at all! You don't need to be athletic or outdoorsy to go bug-hunting. It's a bonding activity between men, a solid sign of friendship! It has nothing to do with having any skills, it's just a lot of fun! There's a reason I'm the Ultimate Entomologist, not the Ultimate Bug-hunter. Bug-hunting's just such an easy, fun activity that there could be no such thing as an Ultimate. You can leave the tough stuff about bugs to me."

"Ah, okay, Momota," Shuichi let a smile onto his face, "I... Wasn't sure if I wanted to go bug-hunting, since it seemed like a lot of work for something I wouldn't be good at, but to prove the bonds of our friendship... I'll be glad to."


	8. Daily Life: Day One (Assorted; Tennis Court + Dining Hall)

After leaving Kaito in the dining hall, Shuichi made his way outside. He passed by the dorm building this time, and he noticed that the outdoor areas seemed better-maintained than the rest of the school. It was beautiful, actually. He'd have to do some landscape paintings of this place at some point. Maybe it was weird for him to want to do that, but as far as he could tell, Monokuma was the only aspect of this academy that had any malevolence.

He made his way down the steps, and eventually he reached the Ultimate Tennis Court. Much to his surprise when he arrived, Himiko was actually playing. She'd acted as if she had no intention of picking up a racquet at all, but there she was, engaged in what seemed to be a fast-paced match against Gonta. Tenko sat to the side, keeping a keen eye on the playing field.

Shuichi approached just in time to see Himiko score the winning point against Gonta, then drop her racket and sit down right where she was, sighing. He was close enough to hear what she said next, "See? Even someone as strong as you, with the precision of martial arts training... Can't beat the Tennis God."

"...Gonta lose count. What was score?" Gonta questioned, dropping his racket as well before he stepped around the net to go to Himiko's side, "Did Yumeno... Overdo it?"

"Hey, step away from her!" Tenko snapped, having also made her way over to Himiko, pointing at Gonta, "Just like a degenerate male. You got thoroughly thumped, but tired her out, and you have the gall to question her win in the same breath as condescending to her for her exhaustion?"

"Gonta don't mean that!" He protested, backing up. Shuichi approached the scene, "Ah, Saihara here!"

"Hey there," Shuichi waved to the three of them, "I figured I would check out the tennis court... Yumeno, I thought you didn't want to play any tennis today?"

"I didn't," Himiko pouted, "But then Gokuhara showed up, and Chabashira said that he thinks he's so strong, I should show him my stuff. I beat him by lots of points, of course, but he actually put up an okay fight against me, the Ultimate Tennis God... So I gotta give him credit for that."

"But then he started being a sore loser!" Tenko protested, turning her nose up, "That's just typical, of course!"

"Chabashira, I'm pretty sure he was just trying to be nice... And wanted to know how much I beat him by," Himiko deadpanned, then turned back to Shuichi, "Well, you've seen my Ultimate Tennis Court now. Was that all you wanted? I wanna go back to my dorm and take a nap..."

"I also thought, if I ran into you... I just confirmed it with Iruma over at the dining hall, she's making enough food for everybody, so we should all eat together tonight. Meet in the dining hall around sunset?" Shuichi offered.

"Keeping track of the time and waking up before sunset... All sounds like a big pain," Himiko frowned, holding onto her visor as she stood back up, refusing to make eye contact with Shuichi, "So you won't be offended if I end up missing it, right?"

"I won't, but I can't necessarily speak for Iruma... It seems like she was really looking forward to feeding all of us a meal made with her 'love and intensive hard work'," Shuichi answered, slipping his hands into the deep pockets of his khaki-colored cargo pants.

"If it's for Iruma's sake, and not yours, Saihara..." Tenko's voice was deep and full of purpose, "For the maid who is just as willing to accept mistresses and she is masters... I will make certain that Yumeno attends! Yumeno, and anyone else who may be reluctant!"

"It's definitely for Iruma's sake," Shuichi confirmed, looking around, "Well, it's for everyone's sake that we enjoy a meal together, I think. It helps us to get along, if we'll be here together for three years, right?"

"Oh, Gonta remember!" Gonta piped in, leaning towards Shuichi, "Was thinking... After one year, we get underclassmen? Gonta thinks, that how schools work... If we first class ever, we get underclassmen but not have upperclassmen!"

"That's..." Tenko started, then grimaced, "Actually, a pretty good question coming from a big lug like you, I guess. Now I'm gonna be wondering that too. Do you think Monokuma would tell us?"

"I don't think so," Himiko shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest with nothing but annoyance displayed on her face, "It seemed like too much of a meanie to do something like answer a question that won't be relevant for another year yet! We just started... Let's get to know each other before we start thinking about underclassmen, okay?"

"Yumeno have good point. Plenty of friends here already!" Gonta pressed his hands together, and he had a kind smile on his face. When he made that expression, even Tenko couldn't come up with anything bad to say about him. He just seemed so pure, for such a big guy who practiced 'Wolf Aikido'.`

"Yeah, we do, don't we?" Shuichi smiled back at him, then turned away with a wave, "Anyway, I'll leave you to whatever you want to do. Sunset should be pretty soon, so if you wanted to get a nap in, Yumeno, you should do that right away."

"Yumeno!" Tenko exclaimed, grabbing onto her shoulder, "You can sleep in my dorm, so that I can wake you up for dinner!"

"I think I can just sleep in my room, and the doorbell will wake me up when it's time, if you come to get me..." Himiko mumbled.

Tenko thought on this for a few seconds before giving a response, "That would work too! But my offer still stands if you ever need me for anything, like if you have nightmares! I can hold you nice and close and let my body warmth comfort you into sweet, sweet dreams..."

"Chabashira, I get the feeling that would just make my nightmares worse," Himiko brushed her off as she started walking towards the dorms, and Tenko chased after her. Shuichi watched them go, then shook his head and walked back toward the school himself. After a few steps, he realized Gonta was right behind him.

"Gokuhara, do you need something?" Shuichi asked, turning to look at him.

"Ah, Gonta want to eat with friends, but Monopad's map... Make no sense," Gonta held out his monopad, and Shuichi was surprised to notice that it was severely glitching out. He took it for a moment, then handed it back.

"I'll show you where the dining hall is. Maybe you could ask Amami to take a look at that for you? He could probably fix it," Shuichi explained as he started to lead the way this time. He had nowhere else he wanted to go, so he guessed he would just stick around in the dining hall until dinner this time around.

Once entering the dining hall, he saw Kaito reading as expected, and realized he forgot to check for bug-hunting woods. He'd seen thick trees on the outskirts of campus, but had no idea if there were any bugs there. Oh well. Also in the dining hall were Angie and Korekiyo. Angie was writing sheet music in one of the notebooks from the warehouse, and Korekiyo was doing something on his Monopad. Shuichi could also see that Miu was toiling away in the kitchen area through the small archway that connected it to the area with the tables and chairs. There were several, but Miu had pushed them together to form one big mega-table with fifteen chairs set. It seemed she didn't intend to sit down herself.

"Ah, Saiharaaa!" Angie called out as soon as she noticed him, "And Gokuhara! Are you hanging out early for dinner too? It's awesome! Iruma keeps letting me taste things to make sure that they're good! If you just ask, I bet she'd let you lick the spoon from the cake she's making~"

"Iruma's baking a _cake_?" Shuichi asked in surprise. Kaito didn't acknowledge his presence, probably too involved in his book again.

"It only makes sense that she would. Our arrival in this Ultimate Academy is cause for celebration, is it not?" Korekiyo looked up from his Monopad, "The perfect environment to cultivate our talents... Keheh. It truly is amazing."

"If not for our headmaster being such a weirdo, this is a blessing from Atua! I can't wait till my lab opens, and I can begin playing all of this lovely music I've been coming up with in gratitude to Him for allowing me to enter such a dreamy, new life..." She had her hands clasped in prayer, but then her expression suddenly changed to one of pure fury, "And if anyone here dares to begin some Killing Game... I'll never forgive them, and Atua will not let them into his kingdom. Even their ghost will be doomed."

"I can't imagine anyone has a reason to want to leave," Korekiyo spoke up again, rolling his shoulders, "But have you considered... There's no way anybody will participate in a Killing Game, but couldn't violence occur _outside of the Killing Game_?"

"What do you mean, Shinguji...?" Angie questioned, turning that dark look on him.

"I mean that aside from murder, somebody could still be mauled, or raped, or any array of awful fates, perhaps even worse than death... There are a number of things which can go wrong outside of a Killing Game," Korekiyo explained, shifting in his seat, "It's human nature, to do bad things, isn't it? Do you actually think not one of the sixteen people here would do something like those things just because they can?"

"I..." Angie froze up.

"Shinguji, why would you say something like that!?" Shuichi demanded to know, walking right up to the table, "We're all friends here!"

"And you mean to say that such awful things never happen between or among friends?" Korekiyo looked straight at Shuichi, his assassin's gaze piercing, "You know as well as anyone that such things may happen even more between friends than strangers, right?"

"I want to believe in my classmates. And I don't know why you wouldn't want me to," Shuichi frowned, taking a seat as far away from Korekiyo as he could.

"Believe all you want. It won't save you if someone comes for you. What about... Ouma? You wouldn't put any of those things past him, would you?" Korekiyo continued taunting.

"I don't know him well enough yet to say if he absolutely wouldn't do those things... But I think I've already gotten to know him enough that I can't say that he would, either," Shuichi wasn't sure why he was so compelled to defend his classmates, but he had to do it.

"Hey now, what are you boys fighting about?" Miu finally intervened, leaning over the table between the both of them, "Let's not be mean, okay? If you get all pent up and need to let it out, use me, not each other! Anyway, it's time to eat soon!"

Shuichi expected a retort from Korekiyo, but what he gave couldn't have been more polite, "You're right, Iruma. I'm sorry, I just don't know what got into me. Do you need any help? I could collect drink orders and serve them, once the others arrive. It is my sincerest wish to make it up to my peers for saying such awful, provocative things."

"It's not befitting of a maid to accept help like that," Miu stood back up, pressing a finger to her own lips, "But since you asked _so nicely_ , it'd be even less fitting for me to refuse, now wouldn't it?"

"It would. Now, let me have a look at the selection, so I know what to offer the others."


	9. Daily Life: Day One (Assorted; Dinner Begins)

Once everyone had arrived, Korekiyo started to take drink orders, listing off the options before letting everybody tell him their choices. In the end, he had a list written down on a small piece of note paper.

[Yumeno: calpis  
Ouma: panta  
Momota: bepis  
Saihara: water  
Yonaga: water  
Chabashira: 'I missed the list just get me something with orange flavor'  
Gokuhara: milk (for strength?)  
Idabashi: milk (why?)  
Shirogane: apple juice  
Tojo: calpis  
Akamatsu: tea  
Hoshi: water  
Amami: tea (double strong)  
M4-K1: water (for cooling systems)]

Korekiyo even took notes on some specifics, and his own observations. He himself was not very fond of milk, and he didn't understand why or how anybody else would be, either. The biggest sticking point for him was the fact that lactose intolerance was so common in this country, at least in small amounts. As popular as milk tea was, straight-up milk was oftentimes a strange choice in beverage.

Even so, he took the list back to the kitchen and got all of the drinks together. He was glad that there was nobody who wanted coffee, as making both coffee and tea would have been annoying. Instead, everything was more or less easy. He brought the assorted non-tea drinks out while the teas for Kaede, Rantaro, and himself were steeping.

After that was finished, Miu brought out a huge pile of food which she set out in the middle of the table. Korekiyo had already brought out plates and silverware, too. Despite the presence of disposables, Miu insisted that she wanted to have the job of washing all the dishes once the dinner she'd lovingly prepared was eaten.

"Iruma, there's space for another chair here! Come on and eat with us!" Tenko called out, gesturing to the empty space on her left. Himiko was on her right, of course, looking accurately as if she'd only just woken up.

"I couldn't possibly do that! If I sat down, then I wouldn't be able to do my duties of serving... Even though everything is already out on the table, it's practical blasphemy to the concept of maidhood to sit and eat at the same table as her superiors!" Miu protested, "The only time it is at all acceptable is when a Master or Mistress requests that the maid take a seat in their lap-"

"Iruma, sit on my lap," Maki commanded, much to everybody's surprise. Miu just let out a high pitched squeal that may have translated to 'yes mistress' and went to sit on Maki as requested of her. Maki looked around the table, then realized she had to explain, "My table setting is meaningless, since I derive no purpose from eating. Thus, I can command Iruma to use me as a chair, and she won't be interfering at all with my ability to eat, as I do not. Were any of you to offer your laps, you would be distracted from the task at hand,"

"You're so smart, mistress!" Miu squeaked out, then leaned forward toward the table, "And so kind, too! Now I can eat with all of my wonderful masters and mistresses!"

"You're so devoted, Iruma!" Kaede noted as she was serving herself from food, a smile on her face as she said it, "But really, we never hired you. Surely, you could relax for a little while? I mean, what do you usually do when you aren't serving anybody?"

"When I'm not serving anybody?" Miu questioned, blinking a few times as she tilted her head to the side, "Oh, you're still under the impression that I'm a normal maid! Mistress Akamatsu, you need to understand, as the Ultimate Maid, I live, breathe, and bleed maidhood! All of my jobs are full-time positions, and I only ever stop serving a master when the job is done and another master is ready to receive me... And, without a master here, it only makes sense that all of my classmates should be my masters instead. I truly do live to serve your every whim. That is the purpose of my entire existence."

"That's intense! Well, as long as you live to serve, we'll live to be served by you!" Kokichi spoke up in a jovial tone, speaking between mouthfuls, "And to eat this delicious food! If you weren't such an obvious pervert, I'd ask you to be my mom!"

"...Iruma," Maki spoke in a flat voice after she'd quieted down her incoherent squealing again, "I'd like to request that you do my laundry, to take responsibility for the mess you're making of my skirt. Do your own laundry while you're at it, because yours must be in a much worse state if it's soaked all the way through."

"How embarrassing," Korekiyo noted, tapping the table in front of himself, "Moving on, then. I'm sure we would all be happy to discuss something other than Iruma's depravity, yes?"

"I think those of us who have our labs available should talk about them, so that those who are getting labs later on know what to expect!" Kaede started, raising her hand high in the air, then continued on, "My lab is themed after my favorite Detective Poirot mystery. And Poirot is my favorite fictional detective, so it's my favorite mystery! I have a bunch of detective novels, some true crime case files, and lab supplies for the sake of investigation. Determining the nature of materials, and such."

Shuichi noticed that Kaede failed to mention the poisons, but decided to keep it to himself. That just meant that she was a little more afraid than she'd fronted to him, and didn't want to just outright state that there were potential murder weapons up in her Ultimate Lab.

"Good idea, Akamatsu," Rantaro chuckled, then went on to talk about his own lab, "The things that are in my lab probably won't mean anything to anybody, but I can say that I'm able to make just about anything with the supplies in there. That makes sense to make, anyhow. I'm willing to take requests for small things for sure, and maybe some more complex machinery depending."

"Oh!" Gonta spoke up, pushing his Monopad across the table towards Rantaro, "Gonta's Monopad came broken. Can Amami fix?"

"I can certainly try!" Rantaro nodded as he took the Monopad from Gonta and checked it out, seeing how the screen glitched beyond comprehension, "My, it really is messed up. I'll take a look at it during the day tomorrow and see what I can do about it."

"Doesn't anybody want to know about my lab...?" Himiko asked, holding her hand high up.

"Huh?" Angie questioned, puffing out her cheeks, "It's just a tennis court, right Yumeno? What else is there to say about it?"

"Good point," Himiko dropped her hand and returned her attention to her food.

"What I want to know," Tsumugi spoke up, "Is when the rest of the Ultimate Labs will be opening? Doesn't it seem a little counterproductive to have brought us this Ultimate Academy before the proper avenues to cultivate all of our talents?"

"Upupu! I can explain that!' Monokuma burst out of the center of one of Miu's lovingly prepared dishes, raising its hands high above its head, "Hi there! Did I surprise you? Well, it's a Headmaster's Duty to guide their students... And my guidance is that we had to start the school year on time, didn't we? Even if the academy's still being built, we couldn't just wait two weeks to finish... That's how long it should take, by the way~! That's just an estimate, though. Could also be two days, or two years. We just don't know. Well, bye-bye! Happy Killing!"


	10. Daily Life: Day One (Assorted; Campaign Announcement)

"Why'd he have to go and end it with 'Happy Killing' like that?" Himiko pouted as soon as Monokuma was gone, balling her hands up into fists, "That's so annoying! Like anybody's gonna kill anyone!"

"The way he said it totally sounded really sure!" Kokichi spoke up, holding a finger in the air, "Do you think, that could mean... That the Killing Game's already started?"

"That's literally not possible," Ryoma shot him down, "Everybody is right in front of you at this very moment. We are all clearly alive."

"Oh, good point," Kokichi noted, lowering his finger and settling back into his chair, "Well then, Monokuma was just talking out its ass, right? There's no way any of us upstanding Ultimate Students would participate in a lame-o killing game. Sixteen people? That's so stale, it'd be way more interesting with double the amount."

"The way you talk really makes it seem like you want the Killing Game to happen. Of all the males here in this academy, you are by far the most degenerate!" Tenko accused, pointing to Kokichi as she did, "Of everyone here, you are the only one who has entertained the notion of a Killing Game actually happening, which we all know is impossible!"

"That's not true at all," Korekiyo spoke up, chuckling, "Several others have entertained the idea of a Killing Game occurring at this Academy. Akamatsu, Saihara... Even you yourself, Chabashira. Didn't I hear you telling Yumeno that if a Killing Game did happen, you would be sure to protect her?"

"Th-That's different!" Tenko protested, but before she had to flounder for an explanation, found somebody else had joined the conversation.

"Of course some people have entertained the idea. That doesn't mean any of us want it to happen," Kaede's voice was serious, lacking its usual note of cheery enthusiasm, "Obviously, we don't. The thing is, if we don't at least think a little bit about the fact that it's possible, then we won't have any idea what to do if it does happen. That's all. When somebody tells you that a Killing Game is going to happen, you'll be afraid, and you'll want to know what you could do if something so awful actually came to pass. It's one thing to be certain it won't happen in a form of optimism, to believe in your classmates... But it's another to just put on blinders to the fact that there are bad things in the world. You can believe in people, and still be prepared for the worst."

"That's right! Spoken like a true detective, Akamatsu!" Kokichi grinned at her, "If something terrible was to happen, it'd be really awful if the person most likely to solve the case refused to admit that it did happen... You know?"

"That may be the first useful thing you've said this whole time, Ouma," Kiibo said, then looked around the table, "But, please. Give all your worries onto my shoulders. As your future Student Council President, it's the least I can do to take on your concerns!"

"Huh? Right, about that," Kokichi leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling, "You're actually running, aren't you? Don't you need an opponent, though?"

"Oh, yes!" Kiibo exclaimed, glad to be moving on to another topic, "Ouma! I was going to ask you to be my opponent, as I believe it would be a worthy political battle to face off against you!"

"Well, okay, I'll do it! But not because you asked me to! Becoming Student Council President sounds like a blast. Don't expect that I'll go easy on you, right? Your title doesn't intimidate me!" Kokichi laughed, then turned and pointed to Himiko, "Yumeno! Will you be my running mate?"

"Wh-" Himiko looked up, screwing up her face as she stared at Kokichi, "Why would ever ask me that? That sounds like such a pain... Besides, I'm definitely going to vote for Idabashi."

"Aw, that's a shame," Kokichi sighed, pressing a hand against his own cheek as he settled back into his seat now, leaning forward on the table, "Then again, everybody loves an underdog story, right? Saihara, can you make me some posters?"

"Uh," Shuichi scratched his cheek as he looked away, fidgeting with nerves, "I think that might be something like a conflict of interest? I already agreed to make posters for Idabashi, after all."

Kiibo reached out past the one student between him and Shuichi (Kirumi) and grabbed onto his shoulder, "Don't worry, Saihara. It's only a fair race if we both have campaign posters of quality, right? I give you my blessing to create posters for Ouma as well, since you're the only person here capable of doing that."

"Ah... Thank you?" Shuichi wondered with a shrug.

"Please remove your arm," Kirumi mumbled, seeing as she was basically pinned to her chair by Kiibo's need to give Shuichi physical reassurance.

"Ah, sorry Tojo!" Kiibo quickly retracted his arm, setting her free to continue eating.

"If we're going to have a race for student council president," Tsumugi spoke up, "Then shouldn't we schedule a debate, or something? Or at the very least, some speeches. We can use the gym, since it has what looks like a debate stage right up against the far wall... That way, it's a fair race. If we were to vote without either of those things, I'm fairly certain that Idabashi would win purely on the fact that his Ultimate Talent relates to the job."

"That's a good point. I mean, can we even hold a race with something like that as a factor? When leading people is his Ultimate Talent, I'm pretty sure the natural decision is going to be to vote for Idabashi," Kaito spoke up. His plate was already emptied, twice. He was the type of guy to eat a lot of food, clearly, "It doesn't make sense. We could just let Idabashi take the position right away."

"Uh-uh!" Ouma protested, waving a finger in Kaito's direction, "No take-backsies now! I'm totally up for the challenge of outdoing the Ultimate Supreme Leader at his own game!"


	11. Daily Life: Day One (Korekiyo)

Once dinner was finished, Miu set to work on getting everything cleaned up while the rest of the Ultimate Academy's students scattered throughout the school to do their own things. Shuichi didn't feel like he needed to return to his room yet; he tended to stay up late, so he'd have plenty of time to work on drawing after nighttime set in. He figured most people would use the school-designated nighttime to sleep, especially since the dining hall was closed after 10 pm. There were a number of people in the world, Shuichi had discovered, who would gladly stay up late... But only if there were snacks available to them in the process. With nothing to eat during nighttime, plenty of people would give up and just rest.

So with that in mind, Shuichi figured he should use the remaining time before it was technically night to get to know some of his peers better. The first person he wanted to talk to was Korekiyo, after their argument earlier. It would weigh heavy on him if he wasn't able to make up with him, especially in a situation like this. There were fifteen people that he could attempt to befriend, and he'd gone making a potential enemy right off the bat, like an absolute fool. He needed to remedy the situation, so he went looking. It took a bit of time, but he discovered Korekiyo sitting inside the Shrine of Judgment, near the weird Buff Monokuma Statue. So that was the weirdest amenity on the list.

"Saihara?" Korekiyo asked, surprise in his eyes as he looked up from the floor to see Shuichi, "Do you need something?"

"No, I don't. I wouldn't ask you anything, either," Shuichi took a few steps further into the building, then turned and made his way to where Korekiyo was seated and sat down beside him, though with a respectable amount of distance, "I wanted to apologize for earlier. I overreacted. What Akamatsu said... That's what you were doing too, right? You were trying to get us not to put on blinders, not to just believe without question that everything would be fine... And I reacted just like somebody who already had blinders on. I know you're right. The world is full of terrible things, and there's nothing about this academy which guarantees we're all good people. The worst villains can seem like the best friends, sometimes, right? That's a truth about the world that I was forgetting."

"...That was all I was trying to remind you of," Korekiyo gave a nod in response, shifting in his seat, "The truth is... I too, want to believe in all of my classmates. In fact, my judgment so far has deemed everyone to be good people, at their cores, but we all heard what Monokuma said. Just because somebody is a good person doesn't mean they wouldn't do a bad thing if given the right motivation."

"Shinguji," Shuichi started, his voice quiet but his curiosity getting the better of him, "Is that how you became the Ultimate Assassin?"

"Keh," Korekiyo let out a small laugh before giving his response, "That's intuitive of you. Yes, I've been speaking about myself. I do believe myself to be a good person, and yet I've killed many people. I do have my reasons, though. The first time I assassinated somebody was an act of revenge on the man who killed my older sister. I was sloppy, however, and his right hand man caught me. Rather than punishing me, he noticed my potential, and decided to use me. It was not a decision to save my life, but merely extend it. The next time I botched a mission, I would be dead long before I had the chance to tell anyone who sent me. For that matter, it became a necessity that I worked hard and took pride in what I did, gruesome as it is. Nonetheless, I made a good assassin. My murdered sister was the only person in this world who I cared about the least bit, so I could take any job without the risk of personal ties."

"You killed for revenge, and then you were forced to keep killing so you could survive," Shuichi summarized, and Korekiyo nodded in confirmation of the statement.

After a few more moments of silence, Korekiyo spoke up again, "Truth be told, I can't be certain any of us have a motivation to leave this place at all. I certainly don't. I know that however I was brought here, it was before I was able to complete my last assignment. If I left here, all that would await me on the other side is death. At whose hands, I cannot know, but it's the end of the line."

"Well, maybe in three years when we graduate, you'd be able to make a plan to avoid getting caught by your old employer," Shuichi offered, hands on his own knees as he stared up at the roof of the Shrine.

Korekiyo once more didn't respond at first, but did eventually, his voice soft and sad, "There's no way that I could do that. Three years from now, I'll die. It's an unfortunate truth of my existence as an Ultimate Assassin. I suppose all of you, with talents that contribute good to society, wouldn't understand-"

"I do understand!" Shuichi shot up, moving to stand in front of Korekiyo, "I may just be an artist, but I understand how it feels to have no hope for the future. I also know that the feeling passes. No matter how much you feel like something is inevitable, if you just wait it out, you can find a way. You can find a way to keep on living, and searching for a new happiness."

"A new happiness?" Korekiyo questioned, then looked away, scoffing, "Saihara... I had a choice. When my sister died, that was when I could have kept going until I found a new happiness. But I didn't. I chose to get revenge, and I threw away my entire future. Any chance that I could find a new happiness lies buried with my sister."

"Well..." Shuichi started, then gave Korekiyo a small smile, "Go ahead and feel that way for as long as you need to, okay? But when you're ready to search for that new happiness, everyone's here for you. I know it. Even Ouma would help you in his own way, if he knew that you needed it. That's what I think, anyhow."

"Okay, Saihara," Korekiyo nodded, then turned his gaze back to the floor, "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to be alone now. But... I do appreciate what you've said to me. Perhaps I am a man with no resolve, but your words still reach my heart."

"I'm glad I was able to help. See you at breakfast tomorrow?" Shuichi asked, taking slow steps toward the door.

"I'll be there no matter what," Korekiyo gave his answer with a joking salute, then looked away again, and Shuichi took that as his cue to leave the shrine for real. He felt good about what he was able to accomplish; not only had he made up with Korekiyo, but he had to believe that they'd even built some sort of bond between them. With that pride swelling in his chest, Shuichi went wandering around campus again, looking to speak with anyone who'd have him as a conversational partner. As soon as he got up the stairs, he noticed somebody seated at one of the picnic tables. He approached, only to notice that it was Maki. She'd picked up one of the mysteries from Kaede's lab, and was reading it now.

"Hey, Maki," Shuichi sat down beside her.


	12. Daily Life: Day One (Maki)

"Oh, Saihara," Maki greeted him, looking up from her book, "Good to see you."

"It is?" Shuichi asked, but immediately moved on before he gave the impression of having low self-esteem, "So, how's the book? Are you enjoying it?"

Maki slipped her finger between the pages to save her spot as she closed the book to pay attention to the conversation, "Very much, actually. Akamatsu's lab is a valuable resource to all of us, since the library doesn't have any text written for the purpose of entertainment. I can read textbooks and understand their content, but there are no academic subjects that especially interest me... Fiction is much better."

"I can't even read some art textbooks. Academic text is so dense... Even for things that can easily be explained with simpler language," Shuichi laughed, leaning over to see the title of the book which Maki was working on, "Sherlock Holmes, huh?"

Maki nodded as she answered, "Yes, Akamatsu recommended it to me. She said that most detective stories which came after have some degree of influence or allusion to Sherlock Holmes, so it would be a good starting point for the genre. It's very interesting how the title character is able to collect and process so much information... It makes me almost jealous that I do not possess even a fraction of that feature. My intake and processing levels have been balanced to the average for humanity... Perhaps Amami could offer me a similar upgrade."

"That sounds like fun, but don't go stealing Akamatsu's job," Shuichi joked, but then an expression of utter shock passed across Maki's face.

"What? No. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't dare," Maki shook her head, that display of shock not budging. Shuichi thought that was the first emotion that he'd ever seen her display, "Why would you ever think that I would steal somebody else's Ultimate Talent?"

"Ah, Maki," Shuichi chuckled a bit, shaking his head, "I was joking! Even if you did upgrade to have abilities like a detective, then we'd just have two. There's no way to steal someone's Ultimate Talent... I was just trying to tease you a little."

Maki hesitated for a moment, then looked away, "I'm... Sorry. I'm still learning. As the Ultimate Robot I should be able to pass any turing test sent my way, but understanding human interaction..."

"Even humans don't understand human interaction sometimes," Shuichi assured her, "I mean, I know I sure don't... I'm the Ultimate Artist, so I've always been kind of a loner. I'm only even trying to make friends here because we're all Ultimates, so it won't be weird to you guys how devoted to my art I am..."

"Do most humans think it's weird to have a passion?" Maki questioned, "This Academy is the first time that I've been interacting with humans my own age, but all the adults that I knew growing up all had passions, and everybody seemed to praise them for it."

"It's different when you're an Ultimate, I guess," Shuichi explained, scratching at the back of his neck, "It's really weird to other people, when you care more about one specific thing than anything else in the world. Even at school, I would always keep drawing even during other classes, and when all the other kids would play, I'd just sit off to the side and work on my art. Everyone called me weird, so i stopped trying to get along with them. I bet it's the same for most of the others here, too."

"I never could have guessed," Maki said, turning to look at Shuichi again, her face returned to the usual blank slate, though it betrayed a bit of concern, "Is that the price of being talented people? Had... I gone to a normal school, would I have paid that price too?"

"It feels rude to tell somebody that you don't think they would be well-liked," Shuichi said, "But I think... A lot of humans can be pretty mean to people who aren't the same as them. For some humans, a Killing Game might not be so horrifically out of the question. I have to say, Maki, that in my experience, no matter how human you became it would never be human enough for humanity."

"Huh," Maki noted, "Well, if that's the case, then I'm glad that I'm in this Ultimate Academy. Everyone here seems to be a good sort of human, in some way or another."

"I agree. I think that we're in luck, to be around people that we can become friends with," Shuichi offered, "At least, I think I'm in luck. This is the first time in my life that I've been around people that I feel like I can really get along with."

"I don't think I know how to get along with somebody," Maki said, turning her gaze upward, toward the stars, "All of this is so new for me, but... I want to. I want to be able to get along. Do you think that you and I... Could become friends?"

"Aren't we already?" Shuichi asked, and watched as the slightest hint of a smile made its way onto Maki's face. He felt satisfied that he was able to prompt that from her; it had always been clear that she was capable of emotion, as the Ultimate Robot, but for some reason she also seemed to be fond of keeping that fact hidden. Maybe, he thought, she was just afraid of trying too hard to be human and failing.

But, to him, Maki seemed plenty human as it was.

"If you think that we are, then of course we are," Maki looked at him again, crossing her legs where she sat, "Thank you, Saihara. You're the first person who's tried to talk to me besides Amami. Well, and Akamatsu did give me the book advice, but that was a short conversation..."

"Well, Maki," Shuichi started, "I'll have to ask, since I'm not sure if he wanted it to be just us, but Momota and I were going to go bug-hunting... You might be able to join us, if you'd like."

"Ah... You think Momota would want to do that with me?" Maki questioned, now staring right at Shuichi in something resembling awe, "Bug-hunting... That's a normal human child thing that I've always wanted to try, but I wasn't allowed to go outside. I had to keep hidden until the day that I was fine-tuned enough to announce at a big keynote presentation. Do you really think I could not only do that, but go with an expert on the activity?"

"I don't see why not. Hell, even if Momota does want it to be one-on-one, I'm sure he would be glad to take you another time," Shuichi chuckled a bit as he spoke, "He seems really eager to make friends. I think, Maki... As long as you take the time to talk to some people, you won't have any trouble making friends here."

"Saihara... I'm not so sure about that, but thank you. I'm sure that if I just put myself out there, I could make a few friends, at least... But it's frightening, you know?" The more Shuichi spoke with Maki, the more he was finding it hard to believe that she was a robot. That was the measure of an Ultimate, he supposed, "As you could probably guess from what I've said so far, the concept of friends is a new one to me... Until our chat just now, I thought I would be better off just distancing myself."

"Yeah, I actually almost thought that too," Shuichi agreed, "Even though Akamatsu was so friendly when we first woke up, I still figured I should go on being a loner, like I've always been... But before I knew it, just today, Ouma's called me his friend, and so has Momota. And now, here we are. Even if you wanted to distance yourself, I'm not sure our peers would even let you."

Maki couldn't help but agree with that statement, "Well, you didn't, and you're saying that you used to be a loner. I can't imagine somebody like Akamatsu would stand to see me friendless much longer, huh? Well. Now I've got you, and you've got me. This feeling is... New. And it's nice."

"It is, isn't it?" Shuichi was in a similar position. Making friends was indeed, new but nice for him. It wasn't like he never got along with anybody in the past, but it was uncommon to say the least, and oftentimes it wasn't necessarily a genuine friendship over a means to an end... But he didn't need to think about that right now.

"Here at this Ultimate Academy... I'm already experiencing so many new things," Maki opened up her book again, but didn't look at it yet as she was still addressing Shuichi, "Maybe it's selfish of me to say, but I'm not sure I ever want this to end."

"Of course you don't," Angie's voice suddenly rung out from behind Maki and Shuichi, and they turned to see her standing there. She giggled, "Don't worry, I just walked up. Anyway... I've realized something! This Ultimate Academy, it's a paradise. It's Heaven on Earth! That's why we've been given such a lovely place, with Ultimate Labs and great company! Atua is always judging humanity, and he's judged the sixteen of us worthy of a place like this."

"If it's a Heaven on Earth, why is Monokuma here?" Maki asked.

"Well, any Garden of Eden needs a forbidden fruit, right? Atua is testing our true mettle. Only a truly bad person would sin when in Paradise. That's why the supposed prize is leaving this place. Who would even want to do that?" Angie questioned, leaning forward with her hands behind her back.

"I... Don't believe I am familiar with that story. The religious studies section of my curriculum was still a few years away before I came here," Maki said the magic words.

"Oh, I'll tell you all about it!" Angie exclaimed, grinning as she slid in next to Maki. Shuichi took that as his cue to leave; he didn't need to hear the whole story over again. He waved goodbye to Maki so as not to interrupt Angie, who had already started rambling; and with that, he set off into the night once more in search of companionship.


	13. Daily Life: Day One (Tsumugi + Kaede... At Night)

The next people that Shuichi encountered were Tsumugi and Kaede again, who were sitting on the architecture just inside the entrance hall. He had to assume that they';d started a conversation while standing up, and decided to sit down right where they were instead of wandering elsewhere. He was about to leave them to their own chat, when Kaede called out, "Saihara! Hey, what are you up to?"

"Nothing in particular," Shuichi answered, stopping mid-step to turn to the pair, "I was just wandering around campus, talking with some people before nighttime kicks in. You?"

"Shirogane and I were discussing our favorite novels. Do you read much, Saihara?" Kaede asked, looking up at him.

"Well, not really. I tend to spend all of my free time drawing or painting... The most I tend to read are art textbooks, and only if they're not written in a really dense way," Shuichi explained, crouching down to sit on the floor across from them.

"Wow... Not even required reading for school? Some of the books for literature class are quite good reads! There's often a reason that classics are classics, you know," Tsumugi raised a finger in front of herself, "Though, my favorite book is more modern. I'm a huge fan of the Honor Harrington books... That's silly sounding, isn't it? But they're about a really cool woman who has adventures in space, with military themes throughout."

"Ah, well..." Shuichi gave a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his neck, "Promise not to laugh, okay? Arriving here... Was the first time I'd been in a classroom since the sixth grade. After I finished elementary school, I never really got the chance to enroll in any middle school, or continue my education in another method either."

"Whoa, Saihara," Tsumugi leaned toward him, "Does that mean... something bad happened?"

Shuichi wasn't sure he wanted to answer that, since answering meant dredging up some unpleasant memories, but he decided that he could trust Tsumugi and Kaede with the information. They were both so friendly, and eager to help the entire group. He took a deep breath, then gave his response, "Ah, yeah. My dad lost his job, and couldn't find another one, so we ended up homeless. I was never that close with my family, so after that happened, our unit sort of fell apart and I was on my own."

Kaede moved to place a hand on Shuichi's, and Tsumugi did the same thing, though Kaede was the one who spoke, "Hey, Saihara. How about... We tutor you? The fact that you say it's embarrassing means you wish you could have kept going to school, right?"

"I really do wish I could have," Shuichi nodded, looking between the two of them, "Circumstances just got... Messy. When I finally got back on my feet a bit, it was because I was able to sell some of my art, so I couldn't afford not to keep creating at that point. It's pretty miserable that my education got cut short. I can't even read complex kanji."

"The translations I have of all those old mysteries are full of complex kanji," Kaede said, "If we teach you, then you could read those, and we could have a book club, the three of us!"

"That sounds nice," Tsumugi agreed, then looked to Shuichi again, "I've never taught anybody before, but I've always worked so hard at academics that I think I could help work you through what you missed. How about we schedule it for... After dinner each day, in Akamatsu's lab? There's plenty of space in there."

"That sounds good to me," Shuichi agreed, smiling. He was right to trust these two with his secret; he didn't expect that they would be _this_ helpful, but it was several steps up from the fear that they were going to condescend to him over his past.

"Oh!" Kaede exclaimed, reclaiming her hand in her realization, "I can ask Idabashi if he and Tojo found any study guides in the warehouse! They were telling me just a little while ago that they finished cataloging it all, but they're still organizing the shelves in a way that makes more sense than it used to."

"Idabashi's not even President yet, and he's already working that hard to make life easier for us?" Shuichi questioned.

Kaede gave a nod, "Oh, yes. Well, and Tojo's helping him too. I offered to help out, but apparently it would be too hard to keep track of everything with more than two people. Iruma made the same offer earlier, too. Isn't it great that everybody's working together and helping out?"

"It is," Shuichi agreed with a soft chuckle. Maybe Angie was right about this being a paradise. It certainly seemed it, especially compared to his life before.

"You too, Saihara. It's so nice of you to make the posters for Idabashi and Ouma," Tsumugi noted, bring both of her hands to her chin, "And you know, I think even Ouma's working for the good of everyone, in a weird way. It makes me wonder if he wouldn't also be a good Student Council President... I guess that's why Idabashi wanted to run against him?"

"That's a good point, Shirogane!" Kaede noted, then stood up, putting her hands on her hips as she stretched out her back, "I was a little worried when everyone started arguing during dinner, but I'm not anymore."

"Ah... Thank you," Shuichi realized that the combined optimism of these two was actually kind of overwhelming. Either one of them, he could probably handle, but both at the same time? It was more positivity than he'd ever experienced, and it was unsettling, "You said that Idabashi and Tojo are still in the warehouse?"

"That's right, and they're focused so they don't want any company," Kaede answered, looking around, "Amami and Gokuhara are in the basement... Probably trying to work out that Monopad issue, right? And when I left my lab earlier, Ouma was in the classroom that you and I woke up in. I think that Yumeno, Chabashira, and Hoshi were with him too. If you were wondering, I mean."

"Keeping track of where everybody is so easily... Well, that's what I'd expect from you, Akamatsu," Shuichi noted, "Amami and Gokuhara are probably preoccupied with the Monopad, so I guess I'll see what Ouma's doing."

"Okay, good luck!" Shirogane joked, waving as Shuichi walked away from her and Kaede, towards the stairs.


	14. Daily Life: Day One (Assorted; Sickness Ritual)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awh, looks like poor Himiko got the stomach flu...  
> Emeto warning in effect till Chapter 25  
> -Varying levels of warning depending on the chapter.  
> -No descriptions are detailed in any way, just referred to.  
> -Mostly just mentioned by the characters, only "on-screen" relevancy is this chapter as well as chapter 18  
> -If you want to avoid the emeto almost altogether without missing out on anything important, skip to chapter 24 instead of 25. Once those are posted, anyway.

Once Shuichi got upstairs, he could already hear that _something_ was happening in the classroom, but he didn't know what. He approached with caution and pulled the door open, only to find that the doorway was blocked off by a pile of desks. He peered through the gaps in between to see that the three people Kaede had cited as being with Kokichi in the classroom were indeed there with him, the four of them seating on the floor.

Shuichi narrowed his eyes and climbed between the desks, though he didn't emerge on the other side yet, just speaking straight out to the room, "Hey, uh, what's going on here?"

"Saihara!" Kokichi greeted him, looking up from the circle with a goofy wave, "Hey there, do you wanna come help us out?"

"Just like a boy to demand that without actually saying what it is that he wants help with," Tenko mumbled, then turned to Saihara, "Yumeno's feeling a little bit sick, so I decided to try an ancient method I read about for resolving illness! I gathered everybody who was free to help me, and we made this room as dark as we could, and sealed it off the best we could too."

"And," Tenko continued, holding something up, "I got this fishbowl from the warehouse. We focus all of our energy into it, our healthy auras. Then, Yumeno puts her face into the fishbowl, and the healthy auras overcome her sickly aura."

"If you went to the warehouse to get the fishbowl, couldn't you have just gotten Yumeno some dramamine or something?" Shuichi asked, pulling his legs through to stand up in the classroom, "And why are all of you going along with this?"

"There's no medicine in the warehouse, we checked. There's some first aid supplies, like gauze and antiseptic, but no medicine. I guess they weren't expecting us to get sick..." Ryoma answered, "Or, the talent I've forgotten has to do with medicine, and so any pharmaceutical supplies would be found in my lab. I agreed to do this because, if that's the case, then it's my fault in a way that there aren't any tums."

"And I volunteered as soon as I heard what was going on!" Ouma raised his hand high in the air, "Magicians have especially strong auras, you know. Not to mention, if I want to have any shot at becoming Student Council President, I should become more involved with my classmate's lives and their problems."

Himiko finally spoke up herself, and she really did look and sound worse for wear, "Iruma gave me some gingerale, but it only helped me a little bit. So... I'll try Chabashira's weird history medicine. It's not like I need to do anything, so it's not a pain to try. Not any more of a pain than my poor tummy's in, anyway..."

"So, Saihara," Ouma pointed to him, "Are you feeling at all ill? If not, then surely one more person's healthy energies would help out poor Yumeno, right?"

"Er... I guess," Shuichi wasn't sure he believed Tenko's idea. If something like this could cure illness, then why was medicine even developed? But, if it could help Himiko out as a placebo, then he was willing to go along with it, "Yeah. I've been feeling perfectly fine. So... Do I just sit down on the floor with you and concentrate on... giving my aura to the fishbowl?"

"Yeah, that's about the gist of it. Think a lameo liberal arts guy like you can handle it?" Tenko questioned, and Shuichi just gave her an awkward nod in return. What else could he do? It didn't seem that complicated anyway, so he just did the best he could. After all of them just sat there focusing for a while, Tenko spoke up again, "Wow, I guess you three boys were _really_ healthy after all! This is all the aura the fishbowl can hold. I can tell these things."

"She's a hundred percent right!" Kokichi agreed with a grin, "As a magician, I also need to be able to tell these things."

"Yeah, like your male perspective would be accurate. You probably thought it was full half a minute ago. Men, always over-measuring things," Tenko rolled her eyes, but then turned to Himiko, "Okay, Yumeno! You can go ahead and put your face in the fishbowl, and soak up all of the healthy energies..."

"Okay..." Himiko gave a tiny nod, then crawled forward and grabbed the fishbowl, pushing her face into it. She stayed there for a little while, a perplexed look on her face, then she vomited straight into the fishbowl. As soon as she finished, she wrinkled up her nose and pulled away, "I don't think it worked, Chabashira..."

"Ew. No, it didn't," Tenko turned and glared at the boys each in turn, "One of you was lying about your health! I wasn't able to pick it up, but you put sick aura in with the healthy aura... And so, Yumeno didn't get better."

"Chabashira..." Himiko groaned, "I wanna go back to my room..."

"You sure you don't want to sleep in my room?" Even now, Tenko was trying. How desperate could she get?

"Mm... Okay," Himiko was feeling too sick to argue, and as she thought about, maybe it would be better that she had someone looking out for her if her illness got any worse. With that settled, Tenko picked Himiko up.

"...What? You never played Tomb Raider? Scientists can be strong too," Tenko explained when she noticed the surprise evident on Shuichi's face that she'd lifted Himiko with such ease, "Anyway, yeah, I'm taking her back," With that, she pushed the desks aside from the door and made her way out. Before any of the boys who remained in the room could speak up again...

Monokuma's voice came over the PA system, "Hey you optimistic bastards! Day one in the domain of The Killing Game... Is over! That's right, it's nighttime! Make sure you're out of the Dining Hall and the Gym, and I'd really recommend that you all go to your rooms and get some rest! After all, you can't cultivate your talents or murder anybody if you're exhausted!"


	15. Daily Life: Day One (Assorted; Bedtime)

Kokichi, Ryoma, and Shuichi only remained in the classroom for a few moments more before getting up to leave in an almost simultaneous fashion, without saying a word between them. It was clear none of the three expected Tenko's idea to work, but they also weren't expecting Himiko's illness to worsen in front of their eyes, so they were all three of them worried.

"I can't believe that Yumeno got sick on the first day here," Kokichi noted as the three walked toward the stairs, "How do you think that happened? Did she get something contagious, that Chabashira's gonna catch tonight, or was it Iruma's food? It was delicious and all, but if Yumeno had any unknown allergies, or if she's sensitive to rich food, it could be our Ultimate Maid's fault, right? That'd be good, then she can clean up Yumeno's puke without feeling like it's anyone's responsibility but her own!~"

"Well..." Ryoma muttered, "Yumeno's the Ultimate Tennis Pro, right? Athletes usually keep away from especially rich foods, since they are known to cause bloating or heartburn... She could have a violent reaction to it if she doesn't usually eat it."

"That's a good point, Hoshi," Shuichi agreed, and decided that he was going to believe that was the case. It was easier than continuing to worry that something was really wrong, or pinning the blame on anyone. Himiko just wasn't used to eating food of the caliber that Miu prepared, and that was all there was to it. He could put it out of his mind except for thoughts that she'd feel better soon.

"Then again," Kokichi started again, leaning against the banister while the group walked downstairs, "Maybe this is what Monokuma meant, when it said that it had ways to make us participate in the Killing Game? None of us have anything that we want to go to the outside world to achieve... But if there was no medicine of any sort here, then that gives Yumeno a motivation to leave. She'd do anything to avoid slowly dying to a disease... Though, maybe that'd be too much of a pain for her."

"It wouldn't be too much of a pain for Chabashira, though. That girl would kill for Yumeno, probably," Ryoma added his two cents.

"Guys..." Shuichi groaned, shaking his head, "Please, let's not talk about that... I'm sure that's not the case. It seems a little bit convoluted. Besides, wouldn't Monokuma have already said something about it if it was supposed to be a motive to kill?"

"Good point," Kokichi agreed as they reached the bottom of the stairs, then glanced over to the left, "Oh, Idabashi! My rival! You heading off to sleep and entertain fever dreams about winning the race?"

Moments after Kokichi said that, however, Kiibo finished rounding the corner, and supported on his shoulder was Kirumi. She didn't look too hot. Kiibo answered with a frown, "Tojo and I were organizing the warehouse when she suddenly vomited, and now she can barely stand... I'm escorting her back to her room."

"Huh," Ryoma noted, "Rest is all that can be done for her now, correct? There was no medicine in the warehouse, and we can't even get her a gingerale with the Dining Hall closed."

"I promise, I'm fine," Kirumi mumbled, but almost all of her weight was on Kiibo, "I thought I was just having some digestive problems, as I've been feeling this way since dinner... I was working through it, but now it seems clear that I've contracted the same thing as Yumeno. It's strange... Usually, I'm the type to avoid catching Con Plague. I have a good immune system. Well, I suppose even the best get sick someti-" She retched again, but luckily for Kiibo, not even bile rose.

"Don't strain yourself, Tojo!" Kiibo scolded her as he continued to walk, slowly. He didn't want to move too quickly and upset her stomach again. He then turned to the group who'd come down the stairs, "Ah, we should all get plenty of rest tonight, if a stomach bug might be making the rounds. Saihara, don't worry about making those posters yet, just get some sleep."

"Yeah, Saihara, posters can wait. Your well-being is super important!" Kokichi said similarly, but it was obviously just a show for Kiibo, since he immediately leaned in _very_ close and whispered, "If I can get my posters up sooner than Idabashi's I have a better shot!"

Shuichi wanted to scold him for saying that, but that would inform Kiibo of Kokichi's attempt at conspiracy. It wouldn't do if the Student Council Presidential turned to underhanded tactics. Instead, he just said, "Right. In that case, we should all head back right now," With that, he turned and walked back towards his dorm. Kokichi did follow, but stayed silent, while Ryoma stayed behind to see if Kiibo needed any help getting Kirumi to her room.

Upon arriving back at his room, Shuichi shut the door and pulled out the art supplies. He needed to make several of the same posters, to put them up around the school... Three different designs per candidate, ten copies of each seemed good. In the end, that took him about an hour and a half, so when he was finished he crawled into bed.

[MONOKUMA THEATRE]

Hey everybody! Did you know something about cruise ships?  
Cruise ships are an absolute Hell on Earth!

That's right, they really are. I'm not exaggerating.

Look it up if you don't believe me! There's a ton of crime without any consequences.

You can't get legal compensation if the ship sinks...

People go mysteriously missing off cruise ships all the time, too!

Somebody here could tell you a bit about that, I bet.

Oh and of course, they're hotbeds for disease! Norovirus especially!

All those people, living, breathing, so close to each other... Of course they'd all get sick!

But it wouldn't do for an Ultimate Academy to become overrun by filth...

 

[END MONOKUMA THEATRE]

 

Shuichi slept straight until the morning announcements, which he groggily woke to as they began. It was awful to wake up to the dulcet tones of Monokuma's voice, but he didn't have much choice; his only option was to wake up earlier than the announcement, and he was no early bird.

"Good morning, you bastards! The day has officially begun, so the Gym and the Dining Hall have reopened! Isn't that great? It sure is! Today's another beautiful, perfect, sunny day at the ever-spectacular Ultimate Academy for gifted- Oh, hold on a minute..." Shuichi squinted at the screen when Monokuma said that bit. That didn't seem planned at all, as if it was just learning something new in the middle of the announcements that it needed to include.

Shuichi hoped that it was the announcement of a new Ultimate Lab opening up, but his hopes were summarily dashed when the bear spoke again on the monitor, "Okay, change of plans. It's not a beautiful, perfect, sunny day at all... For you guys. It just got a Hell of a lot better for me, though! This is the first time I can remember interrupting my own morning announcement to give a body discovery announcement instead..."

 _What the fuck!?_ Shuichi shot up to a seated position, staring intently at the monitor. Did Monokuma just say what he thought it said?

"That's right! You fuckers who thought there was no way you'd ever begin a Killing Game... Have kicked one off in record time! All students, please report to the Dining Hall, at which point the investigation will begin."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we fucking go folks


	16. Deadly Life: Day Two (Body Discovery)

Shuichi couldn't believe his ears. Somebody was dead. Somebody... Had died. Monokuma said it was the Killing Game, but that didn't necessarily mean it _was_ a murder, right? His heart sank at that thought, too, though; and not just at the idea that someone was dead. The minute he tried to rationalize that it might not be murder, his brain leaped to Himiko and Kirumi.

No... There was no way, right? The body was supposedly in the Dining Hall, and it had closed too soon after the last time he'd seen Himiko, and was already closed when he saw Kirumi. Obviously, some students were waiting at the doors for the hall to open up in the morning, and stepping inside while the morning announcement was going off... Only to discover a body mid-announcement. So neither of the students who'd been sick the previous night could have possibly gotten into the Dining Hall...

So did that mean that someone really did get killed? Shuichi banished the thought and got out of bed, getting dressed before he stepped out of his room. In the dorm lobby, Tenko was supporting both Himiko and Kirumi on her shoulders. Shuichi approached, "Yumeno, Tojo... If you're still feeling sick, you probably don't have to participate in the investigation..."

"Asshole, you think I didn't already try and get them to keep resting? Monokuma says if they don't go, it counts as breaking the rules, and they'll be immediately killed," Tenko snapped, and Shuichi realized that she was actually moving, just at a snail's pace.

"Hey, I know you can carry Yumeno full-out. Why don't you let me support Tojo? That way, we can get there... Sooner, and Yumeno doesn't need to walk at a-" Shuichi offered, but found himself cut off by a booming voice behind him.

"Gonta will carry Miss Tojo!" Gonta had appeared, and he spoke in earnest, "Sick friends shouldn't walk... Should be taken care of, so... No more dead friends," He was tearing up as he said this, and though Tenko gave him a wary look, she gave Kirumi up. Gonta was very gentle as he lifted her up in a princess-style carry, the same way that Tenko lifted Himiko now that she only had the small girl to support.

The group of five, (three, if only counting the ones who were fully conscious) walked at a quicker pace than Tenko had been while supporting two sick girls, but still moved slowly for two reasons. The first, of course, was to avoid making the sickness any worse; The other was that nobody was exactly _looking forward_ to finding out who'd died. Shuichi was miserable with the idea that it could be any number of people who weren't accounted for. There were the people he was walking with, Kokichi, Ryoma, and Kiibo who he'd seen after the Dining Hall closed the previous night.

It could be anybody else.

When the group arrived at the doors for the Dining Hall, Shuichi was the one to open them, since he had his hands free. No matter what awaited him within, he never could have been prepared for it, but he was especially unprepared for what he did see. On top of the extra-large table which Miu had prepared, Korekiyo's body was seated in a chair, leaving only fourteen chairs around the table. There was blood all down his front, and his eyes.

The eyes were the worst thing. Shuichi had always been put-off by lifeless eyes, the kind which amateurs sometimes portrayed in their art, but this was even worse. In that moment, Shuichi had a terrible realization; Nobody, not even someone who was trying with all their might, could truly capture the horror of eyes frozen open in death. Seeing those eyes was nothing new for him, but only now, on _Korekiyo_ , did their true impact hit him. He couldn't even back away from the crime scene, because Gonta and Tenko were behind him, blocking escape.

"Who..." Shuichi's voice quivered as he looked at the scene before him, "Who would... Who would kill him...? Who would do this to us...?"

"I wish I understood," Ryoma spoke up, his voice as deep as ever, but in a somber tone, "I suppose... Somebody wasn't as interested in the welfare of the group as we all claimed we were."

"Upupu! Hey everybody! Why the long faces?" Monokuma appeared, taunting them, "Ah, I'll make this quick, I'm so excited for the trial. All of your Monopads have received the Monokuma File, which will tell you key information about the body. Of course, anything especially out of the ordinary will be left to you to determine. Bye-bye!"

The bear disappeared, and for a good minute nobody said anything, until Kaede stepped forward with her Monopad in hand, "I'm going to investigate this crime. As the Ultimate Detective, this is my responsibility. I'll need to collect alibis and accounts from everybody, but otherwise, feel free to go in another room. Just don't disturb anything."

"Akamatsu..." Tsumugi stepped forward as well, reaching out to touch Kaede's shoulder, "We're not going to put this entire burden on you. We'll all discover the truth behind this tragedy... Together. We have to stay united."

"How... How could we possibly stay united!?" Tenko shouted, shooting glares all around the room as she stepped forward with Himiko in her arms, "That's impossible! We were united with Shinguji, and he's gone, and somebody's to blame. That means we're missing two from being united."

"T-Tenko..." Himiko groaned from in her arms, "Calm down..."

"S-Sorry, Yumeno," Tenko backed down.

Maki stepped toward the body, sighing, "Well, she is correct. We technically can't be united in the same way that we were yesterday... Since Shinguji is dead. That's just a technicality, though. Those of us who are left need to unite to find justice for our fallen friend."

"Maki's right," Rantaro stepped forward as well, "That's why we all need to investigate. Akamatsu can't do this alone. Nobody could. Even Sherlock Holmes had Doctor Watson and Scotland Yard at times to help him out."

"You guys..." Kaede mimicked the phrase that Shuichi had given her and Tsumugi yesterday afternoon. She was overcome with gratitude, overcome with emotion in general. Resolve steeled, she looked around to each of her classmates, "Okay, first things first! I need body discovery accounts and alibis. This file has left out the cause of death, but the time of death was one minute before nighttime started. So I need alibis for that time. Uh... You can spread out a little, though. How about you let me check out the body, and go to the gym. I'll take your statements there, then we can spread out to investigate the rest of the school."

"I commend you on taking charge, Akamatsu," Kiibo spoke up, his usual enthusiasm turned grim and serious. Right, he didn't just have this to worry about; he'd seen Kirumi fall ill in the same way that Shuichi, Ryoma, Tenko, and Kokichi had witnessed Himiko's worsening, "I'm sure everyone will be glad to comply."


	17. Deadly Life: Day Two (Assorted; POV Swap)

Once everyone but Tsumugi had left the Dining Hall, Kaede got to work on examining the body; Tsumugi stayed with her for moral support. They'd gotten along so well the previous day that it was easy for them to consider each other friends now. Tsumugi also had valuable input to give on the state of the body.

"Akamatsu," Tsumugi said, having climbed up onto the table to get a closer look at the same time she had, "Look at this. There are a ton of tiny cuts on both of his hands... And his gloves are missing completely. He wore black gloves, right?"

"Yes, I'm certain of it," Kaede agreed, prodding at the body. She didn't hesitate to interact with it, even though this was her first time seeing a real dead body in her life. Some small part of her was pleased that a case had finally crossed her path, though she wished with all her heart that it hadn't been this. Hadn't been a murder which kicked off a Killing Game that nobody wanted. Still, she was prepared, having utilized practice dummies for determining cause of death and proper investigative process.

Well, proper process would involve wearing latex gloves at the crime scene, but there weren't any in the warehouse. There were heavy-duty work gloves, but those were too clumsy for what she needed.

She checked Korekiyo's pockets first, trying to determine what he had on him at the time of his death. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just his Monopad. He hadn't even stocked himself up with any weaponry, which was a bit surprising to Kaede. She could only imagine that an Ultimate Assassin felt uncomfortable without any sort of weaponry, though whoever killed him could have disarmed him.

That brought up another thing to wonder about. Even though Korekiyo's body was discovered here, did that mean he was killed here? Well, it didn't make sense that he'd be killed anywhere else, if Kaede was remembering last night correctly, but that could wait until the trial. Right now was the time to gather raw evidence. Tsumugi climbed down from the table to scope out the rest of the room while Kaede traced the blood down Korekiyo's front to his mouth.

She grimaced at what she'd need to do, but she didn't hesitate to do it, prying Korekiyo's mouth open. The inside of his mouth was stained in blood thin from mixing with his saliva. She angled his head up to get the light in, and noted that the blood continued to his throat, though she couldn't see very far in. That was enough to assume he'd been coughing up blood for some reason or another.

"Akamatsu!" Tsumugi called out, and Kaede turned to see her holding up something, "Look what I found in the garbage," Kaede climbed down and approached her to look, finding that it was... A pair of black gloves, or what used to be. They were all torn up.

"Did whoever killed Shinguji expect that the trash would be emptied before we got here?" Kaede questioned, tucking the gloves into her bag. She'd had this bag since she woke up, and it would work as an evidence bag now that she'd handed her own belongings to Tsumugi to hold onto, so that things wouldn't get mixed up.

"I can't see why the gloves would be disposed of at all," Tsumugi mumbled, then turned back to the trash can, "Though, I get this feeling... Something of use to us could be in the garbage. I kind of want to pull everything out and organize it so we can figure that out, but it could take me a little while."

"Ah, your alibi for the time of the murder is accounted for. We were with each other in the entrance hall all evening, and plenty of people can vouch for that... So, you can stay here while I go to the gym to get everybody else's statements, and sort through garbage," Kaede said, then blushed, covering her face, "If you want to sort through the garbage, of course. I wouldn't demand that or anything."

"No worries, Akamatsu! Get to the gym and talk to everybody else, and I'll be on garbage evidence duty," Tsumugi gave her a reassuring smile, so Kaede gave one more nod before she dashed off in the direction of the gym. As soon as she opened the door, everybody turned to look at her.

"Okay, well, first things first. I need to know who discovered the body this morning. The rules say the announcement is made when three or more people find it, so who was it?" Kaede asked, and exactly three people stepped forward. Miu, Kiibo, and Angie, "Okay, could one of you please tell me the entire story?"

"I will," Kiibo said, holding his arms out in front of the girls in a way that was protective, in a way, "It's my burden, to relive the events of this morning... As I said I would take all your worries upon my own shoulders. Akamatsu, this is my account. I woke an hour before morning. I spent that time showering and getting dressed, then taking a walk around campus. My second loop, I noticed that Iruma was waiting for the doors to open."

"I approached Iruma and asked the nature of her loitering," Kiibo continued, "At which point I learned that she wanted to begin work on breakfast as soon as the Dining Hall opened. I decided to keep her company. About five minutes before the morning announcement, Angie joined us as well, noting that it's part of her faith to be awake early. She too, showered and got dressed before meeting us outside the door."

"And so," Kiibo was finishing off the story now, "As soon as Monokuma said the words 'Dining Hall' in the morning announcement, Iruma opened the door. All three of us saw the body at the same time, and moments later, Monokuma announced it to the rest of you. We didn't tamper with the scene in any way. I even made sure that Iruma would not clean a single speck of blood."

"He had to outright order me to," Miu added in, "And I couldn't even be turned on because I was so horrified. Idabashi, I need a rain check on getting bossed around by you once you're a real authority figure, okay?"

"Now is not the time to discuss that," Kiibo dropped his arms to his sides, "That's the entire story. While the three of us are here, would you like to receive our alibis?"

"Yes, please," Kaede confirmed.

"I was in the warehouse with Tojo all evening. Ouma, Hoshi, and Saihara saw the two of us leaving the warehouse at one minute past nighttime. Tojo was vomiting in front of me during the nighttime announcement. I didn't inform Iruma of this incident yet, so the vomit should still be there as proof that she was there, at least."

"That's disgusting, but definite hard evidence for Tojo's alibi. I'll assume for now that you really were with her during that," Kaede said, then turned to Miu, "And Iruma, I know your alibi. I saw you leave the Dining Hall a few minutes before Shinguji went towards it, since Shirogane and I were in the Entrance Hall."

"That's true. I was cleaning until about ten minutes before the night announcement," Miu confirmed, "And you saw Shinguji enter the Dining Hall about five minutes till, correct?"

"We did. So, Yonaga," Kaede turned to Angie, "What's your alibi?"

"Me?" Angie pointed to herself, then sighed, "Technically, I don't have one. I walked past you and Shirogane about an hour before night, but I don't think you noticed me because you were having a moment with Saihara. I went to the basement, and I didn't return upstairs till after the night announcement. The only person who saw me in the basement was Gokuhara, and he can't account for the entire time I was down there."

"Thank you for your honesty," Kaede said, "I think that does count as an alibi, though. The only times that Shirogane and I are unreliable on witnessing people moving through or near the entrance were directly after dinner, when we stopped back at my lab, and while we were talking to Saihara. If Gokuhara can corroborate when you were in the basement, we would have seen you come back through."

"Okay, so we're all set, right? I'm gonna send Maki-bot over," Angie said, taking off before Kaede could respond. As it turned out, Miu directed Gonta and Kiibo directed Kokichi.

"You know my alibi," Maki said as soon as she walked over, "During the nighttime announcement, we walked back to the dorms together, and I came from the courtyard."

"That's right," Kaede agreed, then turned to Kokichi, "Ouma, I think you can provide me with the alibis for a good portion of our peers, yes?"

"Normally, I'd tell a lie, but this is super serious," Kokichi frowned, fidgeting in place, "Everything's super serious right now. Chabashira, Yumeno, Hoshi, and Saihara were with me in an upstairs classroom. You were leaving your lab while most of us were going to the classroom, and Saihara joined us later on. Chabashira left to take Yumeno back to her room about twenty seconds before the nighttime announcement. After the announcement, the rest of us went downstairs and ran into Idabashi and Tojo. Saihara and I walked back to the dorms together. The other three followed not too far behind. Though, I guess anything after nighttime is mostly irrelevant, except for proving they couldn't have gotten to that place since the time of death."

"I witnessed Chabashira carrying Yumeno out of the building, too. It helps that there's only the one exit," Kaede noted, then turned to Gonta, "So, Gokuhara. Your alibi?"

"Gonta in Game Room. Playing Active games to stay in shape and entertained! Forced door between Game Room and AV Room open for Yonaga. Amami was in lab, fixing Gonta Monopad. Amami and Gonta leave half hour after nighttime."

Kaede immediately noticed the one hole common between the accounts. The only person whose position wasn't confirmed for the time of the murder was Kaito; Nobody mentioned seeing him or being with him anywhere, did they? Kaede didn't want to jump to suspecting him, but it was hard not to when he was the only one of her classmates with no verifiable alibi during or even near the incident. The last time anyone seemed to have seen him was at dinner.

"Okay, everybody!" Kaede announced, keeping the fear and worry out of her voice by some strange miracle, "I've collected all of the statements that I needed to. Feel free to scatter and investigate around the school," Once she finished that, she stopped Miu on her way out, "Iruma, I thoroughly forbid you from cleaning anything, even if it seems unrelated to the case. You cannot, for example, clean up Tojo's or Yumeno's vomit. In fact, as gross as it is... I might need to analyze samples of it. I don't know why, but it could be relevant."

"Awh, well, okay," Miu sighed, then looked up at Kaede's face, putting on an absurdly sweet smile, "For you, Mistress, I'll do anything. I promise, I'll find some incredibly useful evidence, all for you... Kaede~"

With that, Miu dashed off, and Kaede found herself turning to watch her go. What was she trying to do? Get a glimpse of Miu's underwear? Well, that was a testament to her talent. Only the Ultimate Maid could continue to turn on the moe and entrance somebody in such a terrible situation as this. Kaede shook her blush from her cheeks, then noticed that Shuichi was still in the gym, "Ah, Saihara... Would you like to come with me while I investigate?"

"Oh, okay. Thanks. Akamatsu," Shuichi sighed as he approached her, "It seems like you just keep being here for me when I'm feeling lost and confused... I don't know how I could ever even begin to repay you."

"Find something useful during this investigation and we'll call it even, okay Saihara?" Kaede offered, then turned and left the gym. Shuichi followed close behind as she made a beeline towards the warehouse, "Oh, fair warning, investigating with me will be kind of gross. I need to do all the icky skilled work that I can't rely on others for."

"I've seen a lot of gross things, it doesn't bother me," Shuichi assured her, opening the door to the warehouse.


	18. Deadly Life: Day Two (Shuichi)

Just as Kiibo had told them, the warehouse hadn't been cleaned. Kaede sighed as she acquired a tupperware and a piece of paper towel, combining those to collect a sample of Kirumi's previous illness. She took a long look around the rest of the warehouse, but since Kiibo and Kirumi were in the process of reorganizing it all, she couldn't tell if anything was out of place. Maybe Kiibo would be able to.

"Oh, if you were wondering," Shuichi spoke up as he scanned the warehouse shelves, and how empty so many of them were, "Chabashira and Gokuhara went to investigate the classroom on this floor, so that Tojo and Yumeno could sit down in chairs."

"That's good! I'm glad that they're being taken care of," Kaede nodded, then took one more look around before walking towards the door for the warehouse, "Well, that's all I needed to do here. Is... Yumeno's mess still upstairs?"

"As far as I know, none of us were going to clean it up," Shuichi answered, and didn't hesitate to follow Kaede out of the warehouse and upstairs toward the classroom where they'd tried to remedy Himiko's illness the previous night. Kaede collected a sample in the same manner, then left the classroom as quickly as they'd come. Shuichi wondered, "So, where to next?"

"We're right next to my lab anyway, so I'll go ahead and start the analyses I wanted to do. Ah... Sorry I'm just dragging you along on something so boring, Saihara," Kaede apologized as she went across the hallway to her lab, immediately setting up on the table she had. She pulled out the torn gloves and the two samples she'd just collected, setting them on the table, and gathered some chemicals that would react with different substances if they presented in or on the items.

While Kaede was setting up the analysis, Shuichi took a look around her lab, and paused when he reached one of the cabinets. It was the one that had previously stored poisons. Kaede assumed they were mock poisons, but now Shuichi wasn't so sure, and... "Akamatsu? Does this shelf seem a little bit more... Spacious, than the others?" He pointed to a single shelf out of the cabinet.

Kaede lifted a finger indicating he should wait till she was finished. Once she had every test she wanted to do set up, she walked over and looked at the shelf he indicated. Her eyes grew wide, then she reached out and pushed from one end of the bottles on the shelf, filling in the gaps between them. The space that was left once she'd compacted the shelf was just enough for one bottle, "Oh, no..."

"Do... Do you have any idea which one could be missing?" Shuichi asked, furrowing his brow and trying not to let his shock show.

"I didn't memorize this cabinet, I didn't think I'd need it," Kaede mumbled, then crouched down to the bottom half of the cabinet, "Saihara, how much do you have in your bag?"

"Nothing right now. Even my Monopad is in my pocket. I barely even remembered to grab the bag when I left, let alone put anything in it," Shuichi answered.

"That's perfect," Kaede grabbed his wrist and pulled him into a crouched position with her, then opened his bag next to the cabinet. She knew there were more antidotes in the collection than there were poisons, since some of them were for natural poisonings that could occur, and there were a few emergency medicines mixed in such as insulin and an epipen, but Kaede couldn't risk leaving behind the right antidote. Using the poisons as a guide, she placed every antidote that didn't have a match on her shelf into Shuichi's bag, then stood up.

"Why do we need the antidote if Shinguji's already dead?" Shuichi asked as he stood as well. Luckily, the assortment wasn't much heavier than a collection of acrylic paints, and his shoulders were used to that sort of thing.

"Just... Trust me, okay?" Kaede bit her nail, "I want to be on the safe side, in case there's something else going on that we don't know about yet. Uh, anyway. Shirogane was sorting through the trash in the Dining Hall, so I want to check in with her. She might have found something relevant there."

"I'm good with that," Shuichi agreed with a small nod, "I just... I want to know what happened, Akamatsu," His voice was small, and terrified. He was showing weakness, just as he'd done before. Kaede kept seeing his moments of weakness, and he found it so embarrassing, but something about her talent made him want her to make it all better. To solve his feelings just like she was going to solve this case.

Instead of reassurance, or promising that she'd find out what happened and make everything better, Kaede's response was just as weak and shaky, "I do too, Saihara. I don't want to have to be the one to find it out. I just want to know, but... This is what I have to do. I'm the Ultimate Detective, so..."

Shuichi watched as tears began to stream down Kaede's face, and before he could even think about saying something to her, he did the same. He started crying too. Kaede's breaths were hitching in her throat as she sat down on one of the traincar-styled benches, and Shuichi kept his mouth closed to keep from sobbing as he slid into the seat across from her. For a while, they both just sat there, looking down at the table and avoiding eye contact as they made pathetic noises.

Finally, Kaede spoke, though there wasn't any clarity to it. It took all she had to keep from bawling as she nearly hiccuped between almost every word, "If this really is a Killing Game... If a Killing Game is going to happen at this Ultimate Academy... Why is this happening to me? If it's a Killing Game, more people will die, but I feel like I'm completely broken after just one... Saihara, what's wrong with me!? What's wrong with a detective who can't even handle a murder case!?"

Shuichi couldn't give her an answer. Of course he couldn't. All he could do was reach across the table and wrap his hands around hers, not offering comfort but seeking it from the only human contact he could get in this moment, and he broke down. That was the catalyst for Kaede, and so they sat there, sobbing.


	19. Deadly Life: Day Two (Investigation End)

Kaede wiped her eyes. It had been... A while, since she and Shuichi had both started crying. She felt embarrassed that she'd broken down like that in front of him, but it wasn't so weird to her that he'd done exactly the same thing. It seemed more normal to cry in front of somebody if that person was also crying. She had to wonder how late Shuichi had stayed up past the nighttime announcement, though, because when she stood up having collected herself, somewhere along the line his similar breakdown had turned into an impromptu nap.

He looked so peaceful, Kaede decided to leave him where he was. He deserved a moment of peace, she thought, so she made her way out of her lab and downstairs to the Dining Hall without him. Crying had cleared her head and let her at least push the crushing sadness she felt into the back of her mind so she could continue investigating. As soon as she entered the room she saw that Tsumugi had, true to her word, laid all the garbage out in an organized fashion. She looked up when Kaede walked in, "Akamatsu! I found a few other things which might be useful to the- Have you been crying? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kaede lied, waving it off, "I just... I needed to get some of these bad emotions out, so I let myself cry a little bit while I was setting up some chemical analyses up in my Ultimate Lab. I'm trying to see if there was anything abnormal on Shinguji's gloves."

She didn't need to mention any of her more out-there theories, especially not the ones relating to vomit. Instead, she'd examine Tsumugi's findings with a keen and objective eye. The garbage was really well-organized, but there were a few things that immediately caught Kaede's eye. Korekiyo's list of drink orders was among the trash, so Kaede snatched that up and put it in her evidence bag. She kept looking.

Most of these things didn't need to be taken as physical evidence, but it would be nice to have something other than her memory to attest to what sort of things were in the trash can. Kaede thought for a moment, then pulled out her Monopad. She hadn't actually gone looking through all of its features yet, and like any usual tablet, it did have a camera function. She nabbed a photo of the garbage collection, and a few of Korekiyo's body.

"It didn't take you as long to organize all of this as I thought it would," Kaede noted, then glanced around the room again, "Hm... I'm pretty sure that this was the only crime scene. I saw Shinguji walk over here on his own two legs, anyway... So where else should I be investigating..."

"It took me longer than expected..." Tsumugi mumbled, "Scientists don't usually organize things like this, so I had a rough time figuring out how much space I needed... I needed to rearrange everything more than once. You must have been in your lab for a _really_ long time, Akamatsu."

"Are you kidding me...?" Kaede questioned, suddenly getting hit with another emotional brick. The fact that she'd let herself break down in the middle of an investigation had eaten up so much time... She barely even excused herself from Tsumugi's presence when she left the room, "I have to keep moving!"

Where she was going to investigate, Kaede didn't even know at first, but she found herself back in the dorms. Once there, she didn't hesitate at all to pull Korekiyo's key from her evidence bag and turn it in the lock for his room. Entering a boy's room gave her pause for a moment, but just a moment. This was a dead boy, and she was just investigating. Unfortunately for her sensitivities, the room looked... Normal. Very similar to her own room, in fact, and nothing was especially out of place.

That was disappointing. Well, she brushed herself off and left the room. She still had some time left, right? She had to. She took off again, this time going toward the Shrine of Judgment. Korekiyo mentioned after dinner that he'd be spending some time there, so off she went. Once she arrived, she froze. There was immediately something which caught her eye, something wrong. Anyone but the Ultimate Detective would have needed to look much closer to even notice it, but for Kaede, it was an immediate discovery.

On the ground in the corner was a small shard of glass. It was tiny, but she recognized the tinting on it, and the thickness of it. Just because she hadn't memorized the entire shelf initially, she'd taken a definite note of the bottles' properties after realizing that one had disappeared. This shard of glass... There was no mistaking it, actually. There was no way that she could be wrong about this. The shard was, beyond any shadow of a doubt, part of a bottle of poison which had come from her lab.

Still, did this mean anything yet? She had no idea. She needed more information-

"Okay everybody! Please, report to the Shrine of Judgment in the courtyard! From there, you will be taken to the courtroom in which you will argue the first class trial of the Ultimate Academy's Killing Game!" Monokuma's voice suddenly rang out over the PA system, and Kaede froze in place. Lucky for her, it continued, "Oh, and the innovative chemical analysis process started by your Ultimate Detective isn't finished, but the results will be delivered mid-trial as soon as they're obtained. Assuming you can stall the trial that long without coming to a conclusion, that is."

Kaede just stayed right where she was. She was already in the gathering place, and she took deep breaths to try and calm herself. She'd still get her results, so there was nothing to worry about except for... Who did it. That was a big worry, of course, but at least she'd done all that she could. She had a few good items in her evidence bag, and some good points to bring up in discussion.

The first people to arrive at the shrine were Maki and Kiibo, who said they'd been checking out the basement. Kaito was next, looking miserable. It seemed he'd realized that the current alibi situation left him the biggest suspect. Kaede wasn't waiting on any of them, though. She was waiting for her first friend here, Tsumugi. Who would have thought, the Ultimate Detective and Ultimate Astronaut getting along so well?

Or, she was waiting for Shuichi. Maybe to apologize for the embarrassing display she put forth, or maybe to thank him for letting her break down like that, thank him for lessening the awkwardness by breaking down alongside her. Of those options, Tsumugi was the first one to arrive, going straight to Kaede's side, "Akamatsu... We're going to uncover the truth. I know it."

"Yeah," Kaede agreed, "I know that we are. I just wish... That there wasn't a truth to uncover."

"We all do," Tenko said immediately as she entered the shrine. She was still carrying Himiko, and Gonta still had Kirumi. Kaede felt that it was cruel to make them attend the trial in this condition, but the rules in the Monopad did say that skipping a trial was punishable by death. That was a worse fate than suffering through a trial while sick, "But we can't change the past. We just gotta learn from it."

People continued to file in, but Shuichi still wasn't showing up. Kaede frowned as she spoke up, "Hey, where's Saihara?"

"Good question. Ouma's not here yet, either," Ryoma noted, but even as he said that, Kokichi's distinct voice filled the room.

"Never fear, the Ultimate Artist is here! Dragged along by the Ultimate Magician. The two of us are absolutely invaluable to a class trial, of course!" Kokichi's tone was as light as usual, but his next words were much less enthusiastic, "But you know, when I was fetching Saihara, I realized something. You know, if anybody needs to cry, or anything... That makes sense. You know, even I'm not so much of a jerk that I'd make fun of you for being torn up by this happening."

"No," Kiibo spoke up, his tone just as serious, "You mean well, Ouma, but crying can wait till after the trial. Giving in to grieving now will only set us back. Set feelings aside for the time being so that we can uncover the truth, and _then_ we can express our anguish."

"Geeze, are you really so heartless that you'd tell people to just wait till later to be sad?" Kokichi questioned, his hand still around Shuichi's wrist from dragging him down here.

"H-Heartless? I'm just trying to keep us on track, even though..." Kiibo held his hand to his chest, "If I don't encourage delaying the act of mourning, then I'll lose my own grip-"

"And why do you gotta have a grip?" Kokichi questioned, putting his arms behind his head, "This situation, it's terrifying, right? And we're all fighting back misery at the fact that one person is dead... Why fight it back?"

"Because we need to find to find out who killed Shinguji," Maki gave an answer, glaring at Kokichi, "To find justice for our friend, and to survive. We can't afford to collapse yet. Idabashi is right."


	20. First Trial (Alibis)

"Upupupu! So everybody's here, huh?" Monokuma appeared and spoke up, then pointed at the buff statue of itself, "Watch this, it's pretty cool," With that, the buff statue moved until it was out of view and there was a bridge across the fountain leading toward what looked the door for a freight elevator, "Go ahead down there, and we'll begin the class trial."

With that, Monokuma disappeared. Shuichi looked between all of his classmates. Kaede and Kokichi were the only people who knew that he'd already broken down, and as far he knew, he was the only one who knew Kaede did similarly. Still, it seemed strange to him that Kokichi had stood up for the idea of misery like that. It was the kind of statement that Kokichi wouldn't have made, for sure, if he hadn't found Shuichi in such miserable straits.

It was much more embarrassing, to be found by Kokichi, than it had been to break down in front of Kaede; In tandem with Kaede. He didn't even realize how his sobbing had turned to exhaustion until he'd been woken up by a tap on his shoulder from Kokichi, and the statement which was half a joke. 'Come on, Sleeping Beauty'. It was teasing and humorous by nature, but Kokichi said it with a melancholy air.

Kokichi didn't say another word to Shuichi besides that, just taking hold of his wrist to lead him to the Shrine of Judgment to participate in the class trial. Shuichi went along with him, just as silent. Maybe, he thought, when Kokichi said that he wouldn't make fun of somebody for crying, that was meant as an explanation to Shuichi for why he'd stayed quiet on the walk down.

It had been obvious when he first woke up, after all. His face was stained, though he managed to wipe his face with his sleeves by the time they regrouped with the others. So perhaps, that was Kokichi's answer to any confusion Shuichi had.

In the elevator, nobody spoke. Tenko leaned against the wall, still holding Himiko. Shuichi was still disturbed by the fact that both Himiko and Kirumi were so sick that they couldn't even stand up under their own power. Did they really need to participate in the trial? Once the doors opened, there was a circular-styled courtroom, with sixteen podiums. Monokuma sat in a chair at the head of the room, "Upupu! Hello everybody! I've provided two of these podiums with chairs for those of you who are ill, so please place the sickly girls in those seats then pick podiums for yourselves."

Tenko and Gonta followed those instructions, each taking the next podium over from the seats. Everyone else picked their podiums as well, then Monokuma made another announcement, "The Class Trial will now begin! The victim is Korekiyo Shinguji. And who is the culprit? That's for all of you to find out!"

Kaede lifted her hand up as she spoke, "The first step is sorting out the order of events. Everything that happened from last night through to when the body was discovered this morning is important. I know I've collected alibis already, but we do need to get an actual timeline worked out. I can provide that, and then we can fill in the gaps."

"That sounds like a good plan," Ryoma agreed, looking to Kaede.

With that confirmation, she gave her timeline, "We all gathered in the Dining Hall for dinner. Once we were finished, everybody left, including Iruma, scattering to different areas. Skipping ahead to the time of the murder. Iruma had just left the Dining Hall when Shinguji went into it. Maki was outside at the time. Shirogane and I were in the Entrance Hall, then met Maki outside. Yonaga, Gokuhara, and Amami were in the basement. Idabashi and Tojo were in the warehouse. Hoshi, Ouma, Saihara, Chabashira, and Yumeno were upstairs."

"So that means that Shinguji walked to the Dining Hall on his own," Rantaro noted, "Hence, we only discovered one crime scene. And the only person who doesn't have a guaranteed location during the incident is... Momota, right?"

"Hey, no way!" Kaito shouted out, "If I went to the Dining Hall before Iruma left, she'd have said so, and if I went after, then wouldn't Shirogane and Akamatsu have seen me? We know they were watching the Entrance Hall, that's how they can vouch for everybody else's locations!"

"Well," Angie spoke up, "They weren't watching the entire time..."

"They did get distracted when they were talking to me," Shuichi explained, "But I think that happened before Iruma left the Dining Hall. So, no, Shirogane and Akamatsu wouldn't have been distracted in the time between Iruma leaving and the nighttime announcement."

"There's still a way that Momota could have gotten past us, though..." Tsumugi spoke up, gesturing toward Kaito, "From where we were sitting, we had a clear view of the building's only entrance as well as both sets of stairs. We couldn't see down the hallway toward the Dining Hall, though. Anyone could easily move between the warehouse, school store, or gym and the Dining Hall without us seeing them."

"Why are you fixating on me!?" Kaito questioned, "I went back to my room after dinner. I know I can't verify that, but I stayed there all evening. If someone could move between those places and the Dining Hall, then doesn't that make Idabashi and Tojo suspects now, too? Their alibi of being in the warehouse all evening comes into question, right?"

"That is a good point, Momota," Kiibo said, "However, the both of us have other evidence to corroborate that we were in the warehouse at the time of the murder. Two minutes after the time of death, the boys from upstairs witnessed me supporting Tojo on my shoulder, leaving that hallway. At almost exactly the same time as Shinguji's time of death, Tojo was vomiting in the warehouse."

"That's true, the evidence is still in the warehouse," Kaede confirmed, holding a finger up in the air, "And even if that does leave Idabashi as a possible suspect, it doesn't change that you're the most suspicious person, Momota. Nobody can verify that you were in your-"

"I can," Maki interrupted, looking between Kaede and Kaito before she made eye contact with Shuichi. Was she telling the truth? "After I talked to Saihara, he told me that I might get along with Momota, so I went looking for him. I discovered him asleep in his unlocked room, then returned outside. I kept an eye on the dorm building for the rest of the night, and Momota never exited."

"S-So that means..." Kaede mumbled, "Everybody has an alibi for the time of death? How are we supposed to work with that...?"


	21. First Trial (Miu)

"Akamatsu," Kokichi spoke up, "Stop getting caught up on the details. Maybe, what we need to think about isn't who could have killed Shinguji, but how they could have done it. The cause of death was absent from that file, right?"

"Oh, Ouma's right!" Kaede exclaimed, pulling out her Monopad to look at the file again, "The victim was Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate Assassin. The time of death was 2159, or 9:59 PM. Exactly one minute before night began and the crime scene was locked for the night. The cause of death is unknown. None of Shinguji's injuries are even listed here."

"So what'd the Ultimate Detective find out about how he died?" Tsumugi prompted, a reassuring smile on her face when Kaede looked over. Right, Tsumugi had been there when Kaede was investigating the body, so she knew that she'd made some interesting discoveries in the process.

"Well," Kaede began, shifting where she stood behind her podium as she pulled up the pictures she had of the body on her Monopad, "It seems that the body wasn't moved at all. There are only signs of Shinguji's death right where we found the corpse, no blood or signs of struggle anywhere else. Somehow, he got killed while sitting in a chair on top of the table. On his hands were a number of small lacerations, and his gloves were removed. He also appeared to have coughed up blood."

"I found those gloves in the Dining Hall's garbage can, right at the top," Tsumugi added in, "They were all torn up..."

"The gloves also seem to have soaked up a _lot_ of blood from the hand lacerations," Kaede added in, "More than probably would have happened if they were being worn normally when the injuries were sustained. I... Have no idea what that means yet."

"Akamatsu," Shuichi spoke up, getting her attention. She just glanced over and saw as he jostled his bag, and she was reminded of a key factor. He signalled her in such a subtle way, just in case she didn't think she needed to divulge the information yet, but... He was right. That was the only way to continue this case.

"..." Kaede took a deep breath before she spoke again, "The truth is, everyone's alibis don't matter at all. Anybody here could have killed Shinguji... Without going to the Dining Hall."

"What do you mean?" Tenko asked, furrowing her brow.

"Gonta thought, everyone has alibi. Nobody can be murderer!" Gonta questioned too, "Even if Akamatsu say everybody... Tojo and Yumeno are impossible to be culprit! Too sick!"

"That doesn't mean a thing," Ryoma added in his two cents, "Tojo said it herself, last night. She worked through the sickness until she threw up. And, neither of them began to feel ill until after dinner. Though... I would like to know Akamatsu's reasoning for this decision."

"The truth is, I discovered during the investigation today that there was a single bottle of poison missing from my lab. Poisoning could result in coughing up blood in the manner that Shinguji did, and depending on what the poison was, could have easily been given to him at any point in time. Alibis... don't count anymore," Kaede explained, looking around the room, "If Shinguji was poisoned, then it could be anybody here."

"Well, not _anybody_!" Miu exclaimed, "Only people who had access to your lab, right~?"

"Right, Iruma, you didn't get the opportunity to see any of the Labs yet," Rantaro stroked his own chin, "The Ultimate Labs don't lock. They're always open for anybody to enter."

"Well..." Tsumugi started, looking to Kaede, "If the theory is that Shinguji was poisoned, how was it administered?"

Kaede paused, needing to think for a moment... How was it administered? That was a good question. As she contemplated it, everyone else began debating it around her.

"Couldn't the poison have been administered through whatever those cuts on his hands were?" Kaito said, "A weapon could be dipped in the poison, then used to slice up Shinguji's palms!"

"But why would the culprit have attacked his hands to poison him, and use so many cuts? Just one would suffice if the point was to get the poison in his system!" Angie shot back.

"Then... Do you think that it could have been in his food?" Maki wondered.

"That too, has a fallacy in it. We all served our own plates at dinner, there wasn't a single food that was only eaten by Shinguji and nobody else. Other people would have suffered the effects of the poison too, if that was the case-" Kiibo was explaining, but found himself cut off by Gonta.

"Perhaps Tojo and Yumeno received smaller dose of same poison!" Gonta offered, gesturing to the languished girls.

"I talked to Shinguji after dinner and he didn't seem to be feeling sick at all," Shuichi cut down that theory.

"But we've already established how Tojo hid her illness from Idabashi in the warehouse, and she is a cosplayer. Of course an assassin could pretend to be fine," Ryoma spoke up.

"Plus!" Miu added in, "I didn't know anybody was vomiting, so it didn't get cleaned up yet. Also, Tojo and Yumeno both vomited at approximately the same time, which was Shinguji's precise time of death. There were no signs of vomiting from him. Plus, how could one person have gotten a soon-lethal dose while two others just got sick... from the same food? Especially since Shinguji's bigger than either of them, and that's not an innuendo."

"Nobody was going to think it was an innuendo until you said it wasn't," Shuichi mumbled, but he was still audible throughout the courtroom.

"You know," Maki spoke up, "It could have been administered to Shinguji through his tea."

"That's it!" Kaede exclaimed, slamming her hands down on the podium in front of herself, "It was the tea... And that fact narrows our possibilities. It narrows them quite a bit."

"Wasn't Shinguji in charge of gathering all of the beverages, though? He controlled his own drink," Tenko noted, thinking back to dinner, "I remember because he listed off all the options way too quickly for me!"

"That leaves us with two possibilities, basically. Amami's tea was being made double-strong, so there were two normal-strength black teas being made. Shinguji's and mine," Kaede explained, "The teas were left steeping in the kitchen while the rest of the beverages were distributed. Either Shinguji meant to poison me, but got the cups mixed up... Or Iruma intended to poison either of us, and frame the other with the poison being from my lab, and the drinks being Shinguji's responsibility-"

"Wait!" Miu shouted out, leaning over her podium, "Mistress, you don't mean that! You know I would never harm any of my superiors..."

"You were the only person with access to the steeping teas, though," Maki pointed out, "Iruma... I order you to be truthful with us."

"The whole truth is that I wouldn't do something like that! Besides..." Miu grabbed a piece of her own hair, rubbing it between her fingers as she looked away, "If I wanted anyone to believe that happened, wouldn't I try harder to lead the trial in that direction? I've barely said a thing this entire time!"

"That's just more suspicious!" Kaito exclaimed.

"No," Kaede said, her voice carrying the idea of gears turning in her head, "Actually, I think it's somebody else who's hiding important evidence from us. I believe you, Iruma... Because there's something we're still missing about this case."


	22. First Trial (Turnabout)

"What are we missing?" Shuichi asked, looking around, "Wasn't that... All the evidence on the table?"

"You said that you spoke with Shinguji in the shrine last night, right Saihara?" Kaede asked, turning her gaze on him, "Do you think anyone else was there except for the two of you?"

"No, I don't think so," Shuichi shook his head.

"In the shrine, I found this," Kaede pulled the shard of glass from her evidence bag, squinting at it, "There's small traces of blood on this shard, and the glass is obviously the same type used in the poison bottles that can be found in my lab."

"Well, that's strange, but it doesn't change the current theory," Maki said, looking around the courtroom as she did, "Does it?"

"The reason it's important that I mention this strange thing," Kaede answered, "Is because I just realized our other theory just can't work. When Shirogane was sorting through the garbage, she didn't come up with four teabags. There were six. That means... All three of us who had tea must have had them at different strengths."

"Or," Ryoma offered in opposition, "Somebody made tea at some other point in time."

"That didn't happen while I was in the Dining Hall," Miu said, "But I left to do laundry a bit after dinner to let the leftovers cool off enough to refrigerate them, and I did leave about ten minutes before the nighttime announcement. So, there were a few windows when somebody could have made more tea, but..."

"All six teabags were together in a lump. They were put in the can at the same time," Tsumugi said, "They were on top of the other drink bottles that had to get tossed, and below people's plate scrapings."

"So what does that mean?" Rantaro asked, "It's still possible that Iruma meant to poison Shinguji specifically. It doesn't change the heart of the case, except narrowing down that the victim was meant to be."

"But, like, you're still missing a key part!" Miu protested, face flush red, "Why would I want to kill Master Shinguji? I don't have any motive!"

"You have Monokuma's motive," Kaito said, "To leave this place."

"No," Kokichi denied it, "That's a bullshit motive! None of us have anything on the outside. Especially not our Ultimate Maid. Right, Iruma?"

"That's right," Miu sniffed, holding both hands to her face, "Before I came here, my last Master... Was really cruel, he wasn't a good person at all! I've always been willing to serve in any way asked of me, and I mean _any_ way, but even this was too much... I'm so much happier serving all of you. I don't want to go back to him... It makes me ashamed to say, since I'm the Ultimate Maid, but... If I left here, I'd just go back to being miserable!"

"Ouma..." Kaede started, turning to him, "You keep saying that. None of us have anything on the outside. But... How could you know that? Somebody had to want to get out of here, to have killed Shinguji."

"No, not really," Kokichi shook his head, "There's totally another angle to this case, Akamatsu. You're the Ultimate Detective, so I know you can figure it out. As for how I know that we have nothing... Well, nobody even tried to protest against being trapped in here, right? We all just accepted that this may as well happen. We have nothing to lose."

"Another angle to this case?" Kaede asked, wide-eyed, "Ouma, do you know something that you're not sharing?"

"Well, I have one piece of evidence, but it's a little bit weird and useless until you figure out what's going on," Kokichi answered, "Don't worry, I'll share it... But it doesn't prove anything on its own. Besides, why should I try and take over from the Ultimate Detective?"

"Still... Another angle..." Kaede mumbled.

"You know what I'm curious about?" Tsumugi spoke up, "Why was the body found in that position... Why did Shinguji die on top of the table, like that?"

"Maybe we've gone off in the wrong direction," Tenko said, "And it really was a murder on the spot. I mean... We never completely ruled out Idabashi. There's no guarantee he was in the warehouse while Tojo was vomiting. I bet he did the man thing and decided he couldn't handle her problems, and ditched her! That's when he killed Shinguji."

"What possible motive could _I_ have had?" Kiibo asked.

"You're always talking about becoming the Prime Minister someday, you can't do that from in here!" Angie pointed out.

"I can't become Prime Minister until I've been an adult for quite a while. Three years is not any sort of setback! In fact, I see this Ultimate Academy as an opportunity to gain a student leadership position to help the group and to improve upon my techniques as an efficient leader!" Kiibo continued his protest.

"But if nobody else was in Dining Hall... How's the scene look that way?" Gonta asked, scratching at his own chin in his confusion.

"I think..." Shuichi made a sudden realization, frowning, "That might be my fault. When I talked to him earlier, I said that I'd see him at breakfast. He told me that he'd be there, no matter what. This probably sounds pretty weird, but I think maybe if he realized he was dying, he decided to go there to do it because of that?"

"That's a little bit showy for somebody who just happened to realize they were going to die, though," Angie waved her hands around in front of herself, "For something like that, I mean, I'd almost kind of think that it was planned, you know? I mean, for sure if I was gonna die I'd do some weird shit like this, but I wouldn't try and do it a few minutes before I died. I'd set it up ahead of time, yeah?"

"That it was... Planned?" Kaede asked, stunned. Angie seemed to be tossing it out as a bizarro option, but that was the lightbulb that Kaede needed, "That's it. We've been thinking about this completely wrong. Nobody murdered Shinguji... This was a suicide."


	23. First Trial (Note)

"What do you mean, it was a suicide? This is too confusing!" Tsumugi held onto the top of her head with both hands, "How could it have been suicide, with all of these weird factors? Would Shinguji have just poisoned himself and been done with it? What happened to his hands?"

"Well, one thing's really been bothering me this whole time," Kaede said, crossing her arms over her chest, "The only sign of the missing bottle was the shard I found in the shrine. And I thoroughly searched Shinguji's body, too. So... What happened to the bottle of poison? It wasn't in his room, or anywhere in the school. Monokuma? When will I get my analysis results?"

"Oh wow! I was hoping that you forgot about those, since it'd make the trial more fun, but I guess since you remembered I can go ahead and give them to you," Monokuma answered, then threw its arms open as the ceiling parted above Kaede's head and several papers fluttered down towards her. She immediately set to scrutinizing the results.

"I... I know what happened..." She muttered as she stared at the papers. She looked up suddenly, eyes going to Shuichi with desperation, "I... I think I know what happened, anyway-"

"Now's a good a time as any for me to reveal the evidence that I've been holding onto," Kokichi announced, pulling a piece of paper from... Somewhere. Well, that wasn't an odd skill for the Ultimate Magician to have, "I actually have here Shinguji's suicide note. I didn't want to reveal it earlier, because... I was scared that there was more to the case that we wouldn't be able to find out if we just shut the lid on what happened too early on."

"That's smart, Ouma," Kaede flashed him a smile in gratitude, but it soon faded back to a horrified look, "If the trial was too quick, I never would have gotten these results... I never would have remembered that I wanted them in the first place if we didn't get so in-depth about what was weird here. So... So what does it say?"

"It says..." Kokichi started to read off the note, "Entering this Ultimate Academy was a death sentence for me. Upon graduation, I would only be killed. However, this does not matter. My life's goal was to send one hundred friends to my poor, dead sister. With my goal completed, I will end my life and join her spirit forever."

"That's really vague," Rantaro noted, "But no doubt, in the wake of these events, a suicide note..."

"There's something off about it though, right, Akamatsu?" Kokichi prodded.

"What do you mean, off? It's a suicide note, the whole thing is off," Shuichi protested, but Kaede just held out a hand towards him, motioning for him to back down.

"It's..." Kaede's voice was soft and beyond nervous. She was having trouble revealing what she knew to everybody else. Tsumugi stood at a podium beside her and reached out, rubbing her back in an attempt to be comforting. That gave her strength to continue, "With my goal completed, I will end my life. That doesn't sound like the goal was already completed. It sounds like the goal is going to be completed, and he will die."

"I know, right?" Kokichi said, leaning forward, "And I think that's why he did it this way. He wanted to take somebody down with him. His sister's one-hundredth friend. The note, had it been made common knowledge while we were investigating... Could have kept the Class Trial from ever even happening. Then, we never would have found out the truth. And what is that truth, Akamatsu? What is that full truth? Can't you tell us?"

"I can't yet," Kaede shook her head, "Well, I've figured it out, but there's a few pieces missing that could confuse some of the others..."

"Akamatsu, please explain," Tenko was almost begging her now."Please."

Kaede took a deep breath, then held up her three papers, "These are chemical checks done on samples from Shinguji's gloves, Yumeno's vomit, and Tojo's vomit. There's a common component between the three of them. I obviously couldn't test for anything specific, but the fact that they all share one unusual property... Shinguji didn't poison himself. He poisoned Tojo and Yumeno."

"But if that's the case, then how did Shinguji die?" Tsumugi asked.

"There's a reason there are traces of the same strange component on Shinguji's gloves and in both of their vomit," Kaede explained, "And why the poison's bottle is nowhere to be found. Shinguji killed himself by way of crushing up the glass bottle and swallowing the pieces. He bled out quickly as a result of both internal and external wounds."

"That sounds really painful!" Angie spoke up.

"But you know, Shinguji's an Ultimate Assassin. Swallowing glass is probably nothing compared to the sort of torture he's trained to endure!" Kokichi offered.

"But..." Rantaro spoke up, "How did Yumeno and Tojo both get poisoned by Shinguji? Only the teas were out of our sight. The milk and sodas all got poured into cups right in front of our eyes, Shinguji wouldn't have had any opportunity to use any poison bottles as bulky as yours..."

"That's not true," Kaede countered, "If you look at Shinguji's list of beverage orders that he got, Tojo and Yumeno both had calpis. He split one bottle between the two of them. With that in mind, he easily could have poured the poison into the bottle when he was getting it from the fridge. Iruma was so busy with cooking, that she wouldn't have noticed him doing it. If anything, she might have thought he was struggling with the lid."

"Was..." Shuichi mumbled, "Was his fight with me staged, so that he would get the chance to poison somebody's drink...?"

"What do you mean, Saihara?" Kaede questioned.

"Oh yeah!" Kaito exclaimed, "I was reading so I don't know the details, but Shinguji and Saihara got in a fight over something..."

"As soon as I broke it up, Shinguji apologized and offered to help distribute beverages," Miu finished for him, "Normally, I would have insisted that he just sit back and relax, but..." Her lip was quivering, "He told me it was to make up for being a jerk to Saihara, but it was just an excuse... An excuse to poison our friends?"

"It was," Kaede sighed, "And now... I think I can piece together these events."


	24. First Trial (Closing Argument)

[KAEDE AKAMATSU'S FIRST EVER CLASS TRIAL CLOSING ARGUMENT!]

It all started a bit before dinnertime last night. Shirogane and I were in my Ultimate Lab most of the afternoon, but went to see what Amami's was like a little while before dinner.

The culprit used this time once my lab was empty to investigate it, and was struck with an idea after discovering the poisons. Chances are the culprit always intended to kill somebody and then die, based on the note; the poison from my lab just offered up an easy way to accomplish their goal.

After acquiring the poison, the culprit went to the dining hall, where Momota and Yonaga were already hanging out. Iruma informed them that dinner would be soon, and the culprit began hatching a plan to get the access they needed to administer the poison. Lucky for them, Saihara and Gokuhara soon arrived to the Dining Hall, and unlike the distracted Momota or Evangelical Yonaga, The culprit was able to goad Saihara into an argument.

After the argument, the culprit asked to make up for starting a fight by helping Iruma with dinner, distributing beverages. This was the opportunity the culprit needed. It doesn't seem like they were too concerned with who they were able to end up poisoning, but since Tojo and Yumeno were splitting a bottle, that made it easy.

Later on in the evening, Saihara and the culprit had a chat in the Shrine of Judgment. Once Saihara left, the culprit started to set their own suicide plan into action. With their gloves on, they crushed the poison bottle in their hands, after which they placed the glass inside their mouth. Using the gloves to soak up the blood, they pressed their injured palms together and made their way to the Dining Hall just before the nighttime.

Once inside the Dining Hall, the culprit tossed their gloves in the trash, moved a chair onto the table, sat down in it, and swallowed the glass that they had been keeping in their mouth. Between the amount of blood they'd already lost through the palm injuries and the number of internal lacerations they inflicted by swallowing an entire bottle's worth of glass, they bled out in about four minutes, dying just before the Dining Hall locked for the night.

And that's how... Korekiyo Shinguji killed himself and plotted to kill Himiko Yumeno and Kirumi Tojo.

[CLOSING ARGUMENT COMPLETED]

Kaede didn't feel at all satisfied by her deductions, though. There were still a few problems at hand. Notably, Himiko and Kirumi were still poisoned. Everyone sat silent as they realized the exact same thing, but it was Tenko who spoke up first, "So all we gotta do is get them the antidote, right? Shinguji probably didn't think to dispose of that!"

"Well, he wouldn't need to dispose of it," Tsumugi said, staring down at the floor, "After all, every single antitode in Akamatsu's Ultimate Lab is only a single dose. Shinguji probably only _needed_ one person, but poisoned two as a safety net in case we were able to figure out his plan."

"Even that doesn't matter yet," Kaede could barely get the words out, "Because I still don't know what poison Shinguji used. I can't antidote something that I don't even know about..."

"Upupu! Well, since you did figure out who the blackened was, I guess I can throw you a bone this once. Somebody's dying either way, right? The poison is called Salmonella-Y. Named thus because it mimics the effects of food poisoning; It doesn't have salmonella as an actual component. Also distinct from food poisoning is that it's confirmed lethal after a period of time. About twenty-four hours for your average healthy adult male, but that number drastically drops for smaller people. It's very popular among assassins because it's a poison that can easily pass for natural causes!" Monokuma explained, and Shuichi was already searching through his bag for the proper antidote. He pulled the bottle out and slammed it down on the podium in front of himself.

"That's it! Thank you, Saihara," Kaede's voice was full of relief for only a moment before she remembered that the antidote came only in single doses, "But... We can only save one of them, right?"

"Well, obviously we're going to save Yumeno," Tenko decided without any hesitation.

"You can't just say that! I witnessed Tojo's illness myself, and I... Would be sickened as well, not to see her recover..." Kiibo spoke up.

"If witnessing it is what you're measuring by, then of course Yumeno should get the antidote. I saw that," Kokichi spoke up, "And I've been full of worry for poor Yumeno ever since! Would you really justify my worry by letting her die?"

"...Give it to Tojo," Himiko herself spoke up, her voice weak from sickness but firm in conviction, "Let Tojo survive."

"Oh, what's that?" Monokuma asked, holding a paw to its face in a way that betrayed innocent curiosity which didn't suit it at all, "It sounds to me like you're split down the middle, huh? Let's unveil our Killing Game's number one Trial Feature, our Morphenomenal Courtroom!"

"No," Kokichi spoke up, his eyes burning with a peculiar darkness behind them, "We aren't going to pit the lives of two of our classmates against each other just to fulfill some gimmick of this Killing Game. We can't place value on one life over another just because we like that person more... The only fair way to decide who lives is to leave it up to chance, right?"

"How... We do that?" Gonta questioned.

"It's simple," Kokichi pulled out a coin, showing both sides to the entire courtroom, "Each one of us flips this coin. Heads for Yumeno, tails for Tojo. Whichever side flips the most often after we've all done it... That's who gets the antidote. It's not a trick coin or anything, you can see. I'll go first," Kokichi flipped the coin, "...Tails."

With that, he passed the coin along. Everyone followed Kokichi's plan, flipping the coins themselves. When all was said and done, the winner... was tails.

"This... No, it can't be," Tenko's voice was strained at the result, and she gave a desperate look to Himiko, "Isn't there... Isn't there some way that we could save them both? There has to be something!"

"Tenko..." Himiko's voice was barely there, but she forced herself to speak anyway, "You know it's... Fine. Even a God's reign must come to an end eventually. We bow under the weight of the world... And perish. All that I have to regret is that my dominion has ended in such a _lame_ way..."

"Himiko..." Tenko couldn't help crying as she crouched down next to the chair that Himiko was in and pulled her close. Shuichi, meanwhile, walked across the courtroom and gave the antidote to Kirumi. They'd made a decision, and if they delayed any longer, then they might not be able to save _anybody_.

Kirumi drank down the antidote as Shuichi held the bottle to her mouth, and as soon as she'd finished it, some of the pink came back to her cheeks. It was having a quick effect on making a positive change in her health, though it would take longer for a true recovery. At least this meant they weren't too late.

They weren't too late to save one of their friends.

But Tenko felt the life go out of the body she was holding as Himiko Yumeno died in her arms.


	25. Daily Life: Day Two (POV Swap; Kaito + Maki)

It was still morning. It was still... The day of the Class Trial. The Trial had finished by noon, and nobody knew what to do with the rest of a day like this. Tenko, Gonta, and Kokichi went out behind the school to give Himiko a proper burial. Kiibo helped Kirumi back to her room to sleep off the rest of the poison's effects as she recovered.

Kaede and Tsumugi went off... Somewhere together, and everybody else scattered too. Shuichi found himself alone in the courtyard for a few moments, but soon he was approached by Maki and Kaito. The latter was the one who spoke, "...Saihara. We've decided that we're going to go bug-hunting. You're coming with us."

"We need a distraction," Maki explained, "And this can serve as that distraction. I explained to Momota that... I lied for him because I believed in him. And I wanted us to become friends. He really wasn't involved in the case in the end, so I guess... It worked out. So now we're going to distract ourselves with bug-hunting. And like he said, you're coming."

�"Okay," Shuichi agreed. They were right; He couldn't be alone without a cause right now. Even if he tried to draw, he knew what would happen if he did. He'd just draw such terrible things; he'd draw the dead. He'd end up drawing the death he'd seen and then he'd just feel even worse about it. Not just Himiko and Korekiyo; Any death he'd ever seen, throughout his life.

So with that, the three of them made their way towards the woods at the outskirts of campus. The trees were thick and tall, providing quite a bit of shade where they stood. Just one step between their trunks and there was the smell of a forest, the blend of the leaves and the dirt. For Kaito, that smell was by far the most comforting thing in the world. It wasn't half bad for Maki or Shuichi either.

"So..." Shuichi started while looking all around at the trees, "That was a lie, Maki?"

"Yeah," Kaito answered for her, "My room was locked, and I wasn't sleeping. But the rest is true. She knocked on my door, but I didn't answer, and she _would_ have seen me leave, if I did. But I didn't."

"If you weren't sleeping, what were you doing?" Shuichi asked, nothing but curiosity evident in his voice.

"I was reading that textbook," Kaito explained, "After dinner, I took it back to my room so that I could just go straight to sleep when I got too tired to read anymore."

"Reading is a lot of fun, isn't it?" Maki asked, pressing her hands together, "I used to just read workbooks, but Akamatsu let me borrow one of her mystery novels, and I'm loving it..."

"Yeah, readings good, but if you can learn things hands-on that's pretty much always better," Kaito nodded, "Hey, let's be quiet for a bit. I haven't noticed any bugs yet, so the ones around here might be shy..."

The others agreed, and for a good long while, nobody said anything. They kept as quiet as possible, but it didn't seem to help. They returned to chatting about anything but the murder, then back to silence, and the sun was starting to set by the time that they finally realized that they weren't going to have any luck. The three of them stumbled out of the woods, then collapsed onto the grass just outside, lying on their backs.

They looked straight up at the sky, and Kaito just muttered, "There are no bugs."

His voice was lackluster, blank, absolutely worthless in that moment. He may as well have not made any sound, because it accomplished was communicating to himself and to his companions that he was feeling hopeless. As soon as he mumbled that, he realized that he was crying. There were different types of tears; there were the kind that Shuichi, Kaede, and Tenko had all cried. Tears of disbelieving anguish.

These were tears of the empty holes left inside all of them at the loss of two people they'd expected to become friends with. The fact that there were no bugs... That wasn't really what made any of them upset, but all three of them were crying now as they stared at the sky. There was nothing for them. There was nothing for any of them, was there?

Even at a time when there was nothing for them outside, no reason they should care about trying to escape before three years were up and they could leave anyhow... Two people were dead. Korekiyo had his reasons, and they were completely different than anything Monokuma could have said. Korekiyo only had death waiting for him, no matter when or if he left. The very act of waking up in this Ultimate Academy sealed his fate, so of course he'd find a way to finish his life's goal from inside...

But why the poison? That was what ate at Shuichi. Why had Korekiyo used poison, rather than something more straightforward? There were no full-on weapons available, but there had to be something in the warehouse that could have been used. Had the point been to make them choose which friend to save?

That was horrifying, but from what Shuichi knew about Korekiyo, he wouldn't put it past him. Even after they'd made up from their earlier argument. Maybe, Shuichi's conversation with him had just encouraged him to go through with the suicide part of his plan. Maybe the afterlife was what Korekiyo considered to be his new happiness.

"Hey," Kaito finally spoke again, still quiet, still lacking in any real emotion, "Don't you guys... realize? Even if two people died... Hell, even if the Killing Game really does happen, all the way through? Does it matter? It... Doesn't. That's it. It doesn't matter what bad things have happened, or could happen, because this is still better than the outside world."

"I know that's true for me," Maki mumbled, "Being trapped here? It's not so much being trapped. I was more trapped in the outside world. At least there's grass and trees and mystery novels here, and... friends."

"...Yeah," Shuichi groaned, "I guess that is true."

"Hey," Rantaro's voice broke through their moment of hopelessness, "You three. Iruma made dinner... Come on."

"I'm not hungry," Kaito said, not budging from where he lay.

"Yeah, you are. You just don't want to bother," Rantaro chided, "If you've been out here since the trial, then you haven't eaten at all today. You need to. No matter how depressed you are, okay?"

"...Okay," Shuichi sat up, then stood and held out a hand for Kaito. If Maki wanted to stay here, there was no reason that she needed to come, but she did end up standing too. When she noticed that Shuichi was a bit confused by her action, she explained herself.

"If I'm not there to be a chair, then Iruma won't participate in the meal," Maki said, "So for her sake, I have a responsibility," With that, she walked at a brisk pace toward the school building. The remainder of them went much more slowly, but did make it there. Maki had already sat down as soon as she got there, so there were three seats left.

One of the seats was between Tenko and Kiibo... That seemed like a minefield, so Shuichi took the seat with Kokichi on the left and an open seat on the right. Rantaro sat beside him, so Kaito was unfortunately sentenced to being between those two. Shuichi only felt a little bit bad, because Kaito could probably handle it.

"Hi Saihara," Kokichi greeted him, just an off-hand note that he was aware Shuichi was next to him. It seemed like this would be a rather quiet meal. The second dinner since they arrived at the Ultimate Academy, and they were short two people, and all too distraught to have even casual conversation while they ate.

How did this happen?

That was the question everybody wished they could answer.


	26. Daily Life: Day Two (Divide)

Shuichi was right to assume that dinner would be quiet; Nobody said a word for quite a while, but it wouldn't remain silent the entire time. It wasn't because any of his peers decided that they ought to say something, strike up a conversation... It was because Monokuma made an appearance, hopping up onto the table. Well, at least it didn't burst out of any food this time.

"Upupu! Hey everybody! That trial this morning sure was exciting, right? It's good to see you've all decided to get together for dinner again. I've changed my mind about the Killing Game. It really is awful, right? That's why my next motive for you... Is to become friends! That's right, all of you, become good friends. Find the poor kid who's always alone and make friends with them before they hang themselves or shoot up the school! Though I guess that's more fitting to an academy that's not Ultimate..."

"Shut up," Tenko muttered, clenching her fists as she stood up, glaring at Monokuma, "Shut up! You tell us we should play a Killing Game, then once you get what you want, you turn around and say we should all be friends? How can we all be friends now? Himiko is dead. And there's people here who wanted that. There are people here who were glad that Tojo won the antidote over Himiko, and how can I be friends with them?"

"...Had Yumeno won the antidote over me, I wouldn't want Idabashi to be such a sore loser. I don't think Yumeno would want you to act like this either," Kirumi spoke up, holding a hand to her mouth with narrowed eyes.

"Don't you fucking try to speak for her," Tenko hissed, pointing at Kirumi, "As far as I'm concerned, you're just as much a degenerate as Shinguji was. So is anybody who'll follow Idabashi after he so callously stated that he valued your life more than Himiko's," She then turned on Kokichi, and took a deep breath, "You stuck your neck out for me, and I want to apologize for saying you're the most degenerate male of everyone here. Anyone can be a degenerate, and it's not you."

"Hey now," Kokichi held his hands up in front of himself, "As much as I appreciate that, Chabashira, don't you think you're being a little bit harsh? Tojo should hate us just as much for saying we'd prefer Yumeno to live over her, but I don't see her making any declarations of war..."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you, but I'd prefer we didn't turn this into K Project or Durarara..." Kirumi mumbled.

"Hey bastards! Stop that! I just told you that you should be friends!" Monokuma shouted, waving its paws around, but then it brought them back to itself to pose sweetly, "Besides, don't you want to know which Ultimate Labs were able to finish construction while you were busy with the trial?"

"Ultimate Labs?" Ryoma asked, "Huh... Yeah, okay. I want to know."

"The Ultimate Assassin's Lab is available on floor two, but is still unfinished, and also locked because its owner is dead. The Ultimate Robot's Lab is on the third floor, The Ultimate Entomologist's lab is also on the second floor, while the Ultimate Pianist's Lab is again on the third. Oh, and I guess that the Ultimate Magician's Lab is ready too. That one is actually adjacent to the gym, towards the back of the school, since the gym is a good place for performances. It also shares a wall with the boiler room, but there's no way to move between them. Okay, bye-bye! Become best friends, all of you!"

And with that, Monokuma was gone once more, and a tension hung in the air. After a length of silence, Tenko spoke up again, glaring around the table, "Well? Who cares what Monokuma said. I can't possibly be friends with somebody who supports Idabashi anymore, so you better pick your sides!"

"That's ridiculous!" Tsumugi exclaimed, "Picking sides won't help anybody... We all need to work together, I think."

"We were gonna pick sides anyway when we vote for Student Council President though, right? It's the same split, since Ouma was advocating for Yumeno and Idabashi was advocating for Tojo," Kaito said, "What's really the difference?"

"I can't do that!" Miu exclaimed, holding both hands to the center of her chest in earnest, "I'm here to serve everybody!"

"Don't worry, Iruma," Tenko pointed at her, "I know that! Everyone loves our bisexual maid, and I'd be the worst type of person if I made you choose between us! But everybody else, I know you're on one side or the other. Come on. Ouma, or Idabashi?"

Despite the protests, people started making their decisions. Almost everybody picked Kiibo, of course, but that didn't mean that Kokichi was left behind. Tenko obviously stood with him, and Ryoma did as well. Shuichi thought that made sense, since Ryoma was also present when Himiko's sickness worsened. Well, so was he, himself. He glanced toward Kiibo. Kaede, Tsumugi, Kaito, and Maki were all siding with him, and Shuichi considered himself friends with all of them, but... 

Somehow, he was compelled to stand next to Kokichi. Was it that he didn't trust Kiibo? Why wouldn't he trust the Ultimate Supreme Leader to be their student council president? Still, for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to side with him. So it was that Kokichi, Tenko, Shuichi, Ryoma, Rantaro, and Gonta stood on one side of the room, with everyone else but Miu on the other. Shuichi's friends on the other side gave him an odd look, but didn't seem angry or disappointed that he'd chosen to support Kokichi instead.

The divide was not a good idea, but if it was going to happen anyway... Then hopefully it wouldn't lead to more problems. Most of it was Tenko's idea anyhow, and the others just went along with it. It wasn't as if there was a bitter rivalry.

Just a difference in opinions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, this was the last of my backlog and it's nanowrimo so there might be fewer chapters till December. I'm gonna keep going of course but nanowrimo is priority!


	27. Daily Life: Day Two (Bedtime)

Following dinner, despite the divide, nobody wanted to be alone. Not even in pairs of two, and nobody wanted to bother with checking out those new labs either. It seemed pointless to bother with something like that at a time like this, and there was a feeling that hung over everybody. If something terrible happened again, they needed alibis.

If something terrible happened again, they needed a potential witness.

Nobody wanted this. Not a single one of them had any desire within themselves to suspect their peers who were just as afraid as they were, but they couldn't keep the thoughts and worries from infecting their brains, creeping in and filling them with that sort of dread that they just couldn't begin to reconcile. It was disgusting, like a parasite that took hold and couldn't be expelled.

Shuichi felt it too.

With these feelings in mind, these feelings swirling throughout the entire group as if they could merely be swatted away if somebody dared life a hand to try, everybody moved toward the dorm building as a unit. It was one mass, transferring from the dining hall to each of their rooms in a singular movement that nobody dared to break. When Shuichi reached his own room, the very first thing he did was lock the door behind himself.

Locked inside and safe, Shuichi heaved a heavy breath which wasn't quite a sigh, but held many characteristics of one. It released a tension within him, it expressed an exasperation, but it wasn't a sigh. It bordered on a dry heave, more like, it was a far more intense expression of his anguish than a mere sigh could ever be. Back to the door, he slid down until he was seated on the floor and his knees were pressed to his chest.

He kept breathing. In, and out, it was all that he could focus on for now. He thought about what Kaito and Maki discussed with him. Even though two people were dead, this was better than the real world. That was right. That didn't mean Shuichi couldn't break down. Better than the real world wasn't a huge improvement, after all.

He already cried over the situation. He wouldn't cry again. He hadn't processed it yet, though. He'd allowed his emotions to escape, sure, but that was different from processing. He had no idea how long he'd stayed sitting by the door, but he did eventually pick himself back up. He showered this morning, right? Or no? He couldn't remember. He needed to feel like a real human being. He'd take one anyway, even if it ended up his second one today.

Once Shuichi was under the spray of the shower, he started to feel a little bit real again. He'd managed to function enough to ensure he'd gotten undressed before stepping into the shower, or so he thought. He mostly had, but realized in seconds that he was now the shameful owner of one pair of sopping wet socks. He peeled them off of his feet one at a time while in the shower, leaning against the wall to keep his balance, then tossed them off to the side.

The distraction of freeing his feet from the soaked socks gave him the real kick that Shuichi needed to go from lacking in awareness and reality, to becoming hyperaware that he was indeed a real person, and he was here. Alive and right here. That was something. He took deep breaths now, calming his nerves with his arms wrapped around his torso.

He ran his own fingers along the barrel of his chest. He'd gained plenty of weight after he finally sold a few paintings and was able to afford a studio apartment and something to eat almost daily, but the feeling of ribs pressing out against stretched skin was something unforgettable, both mentally and physically. There was a feeling of weakness in his skin around where it had once clung to his bones.

Shuichi wondered how many times he'd nearly died before. He was sure it was a nonzero number, probably in the double digits. That had been the daily norm for a good two and a half years of his life, but never once could he remember being so afraid for his own safety and the safety of those around him out there in the world. Fear like this was new to him, and that was what led him to handling it so badly.

He was already beginning to cope better now that he'd come to understand the purpose behind his lack of handling this. It wasn't the worst thing he'd ever dealt with, and it wasn't the most danger his life had ever been in. The reason was that swell of fear unlike any he'd felt before. This fear felt peculiar, since this was the first time his life had been in danger that he actually wanted to survive.

And this was the first time that he honestly had friends that he didn't want to see die. Kaede, and Tsumugi... Kaito and Maki too, and even Kokichi, somehow. He still didn't understand the compulsion he felt to give the liar a chance. Maybe it was because of the way that Kokichi hadn't just declined to poke fun at him for breaking down, but stood up for the idea that crying wasn't something to be made fun of. Even if those sentiments were false, they were important in the moment.

Shuichi got dressed again after he left the shower, but only in the pajamas this academy provided. It was much too early to sleep, the nighttime announcement still the better part of two hours away, but he certainly wasn't going to leave his room again tonight. He had to try to sleep, even if he knew the announcement might wake him far too soon and leave him trying again.

He'd stumbled upon some sort of calm, some sort of closure for the day's horrifying events. He had to take advantage of that, because he had no idea when or if it would fade away again to leave him the wreck he'd found himself prior to his shower. With that in mind, Shuichi went to lie down, drawing the covers up all the way above his head. He understood why he felt the way he did, and it was warm here. He had friends. Maybe he'd lose them, but he had them. Maybe he'd die, but for now, he was at least... Okay.

By now, he knew that was the best he could hope for.


	28. Daily Life: Day Two (Bedtime POV Swap)

Kaede Akamatsu didn't know where the time went.

That was a general idea, actually. Kaede Akamatsu didn't know where the time went... Ever. She'd always had trouble with utilizing her sixth sense, and that had never been more apparent than when she and Shuichi had cried in her lab for far more time than she ever could have expected she would spend crying, at least in one session. That was far from the first time something like that had happened, though.

Ever since Kaede was young, there were things she excelled at and things that she simply couldn't do, and she never knew why. She could make friends easily, but she could never understand why her friends didn't like all the same things she liked. She could figure out every single thing in the room, but she could never figure out why or how time's arrow marched on. When she was with other people, her inability to feel the passage of time in a normal way wasn't a problem. They could keep her grounded.

That was what scared her the most of anything in this place. She knew what it was like to be the only one left. To be alone, and without any grounding, and lost in a nebulous feeling where days didn't exist. Where Kaede just did whatever she did, ate when she was hungry, slept when she was tired. Where time just went on, and on, and she couldn't take stock of her situation at all.

It wasn't that time was an entirely abstract concept, of course. Kaede understood hard facts about time, such as how long it took for people to travel, for bodies to decay, for poisons to take effect. It was more that she was eternally dissociating, unable to register any sort of biological clock that told her she was on a schedule, that she ought to wake when it was light and sleep when it was dark, and eat three meals a day in the morning, at noon, and in the evening.

That was obvious now, too. Kaede had no clue how long she'd just sat on her bed in the clothes from that day, just staring at the wall in a daze before she finally decided to do something. It wasn't past the nighttime announcement, she knew that much. That would have snapped her out of her fog if it had played. With heavy shoulders and eyelids, Kaede stole a glance at the clock by her bedside.

2100.

2101

2102

2103

Kaede counted out seconds in her head, then checked the clock again.

2125.

Well, there she went again, losing her time. It was nothing unfamiliar to her, and she had gotten used to it, adapting in most cases to continue functioning as usual. Spending a night alone was disorienting, sure, but all she had to do was shower and then go to sleep. She'd lose track of time in the shower too, but she'd realize when the water went cold after forty minutes at most.

It wasn't being alone and out of time.

That was one of the worst times in her life. Kaede told Shuichi that she'd gotten the title of Ultimate Detective without ever solving a single case, and that was true. There had never been a case she needed to solve, but that didn't mean her life was free of any and all crimes. She had been left all alone.

The only clock left for her was one watch which ran.

Slow.

So slow.

Kaede thought, if the Killing Game really did happen... As it hadn't yet, Korekiyo's suicide was truly what he himself would call a murder outside the realm of the Killing Game, but if it did happen, then who was to say that Kaede wouldn't find herself in that situation again? Utterly alone. Nobody there to ground her and remind her.

An hour was an hour, even when it didn't feel that way.

Kaede managed to finish showering before the nighttime announcement chimed, which it did while she was pulling the pajamas over her head. She straightened them out, then looked up at the screen.

"Hey everybody! Headmaster Monokuma here, and I gotta say... I'm super sorry about everything! Like I said, I realized it's way better if you all just become friends. That trial was so boring, I didn't even get to execute anybody... So why would I want that to happen again? I never should have told you guys about the Killing Game in the first place!" The bear somehow sounded sincere over the monitor, but Kaede didn't trust it. She never had, and she never would.

"Anyway, get some rest!" Monokuma continued, "I noticed that you haven't gone to look at your new Ultimate Labs yet, so you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow checking those out! Sweet dreams!"

Kaede hesitated after watching the screen above, then rolled over. Even if it was what Monokuma wanted, she wouldn't stay awake. Sleep was important, sleep was a cleansing thing. Waking up was miserable for sure, but it was a 'damn, it's morning' sort of miserable, and for a few moments that completely overshadowed any lingering misery from the previous day's problems.

She drew the blankets up to her neck and sighed, staring at the clock on her nightstand. As the minutes slowly ticked up, it seemed almost hypnotizing. Watching something moving against a room that was otherwise composed of utter darkness had always helped Kaede to fall asleep. Sometimes that was a problem, if she needed to use a computer in a dark room.

She did fall asleep soon.

Her dreams were anything but sweet, though. Through her subconscious flickered the deaths she'd seen. Korekiyo wasn't among them. He was only a corpse, but Himiko was. She'd died right in front of Kaede's eyes. In the dream, Kaede saw these deaths she'd witnessed all over again, and even more, until her fear that she would be alone and ungrounded overcame her.

"Rise and Shine kiddos!" The feeling of being lost in a void was broken by the morning announcement, and Kaede woke. Monokuma was on the monitor, waving, and she felt pissed off at the idea she was actually grateful to that thing for waking her from such a dream, "You've got a bright shining day ahead! Don't worry, everyone's alive and well in their rooms! Well, except for Iruma, who was just waiting to get at the dining hall again!"

"Speaking of the dining hall," Monokuma continued, "Wouldn't that last trial have been way harder if there was more than one entrance? It's a good thing I waited until that dangerous Shinguji was dead to do this. It has a door directly to the courtyard now! Two entrances to the dining hall. Make sure to eat three meals a day and stay healthy! Bye-bye!"

Kaede rubbed her eyes, then climbed out of bed and went to get ready to face the day. She had a craving for pancakes. She wouldn't ask Miu to make them for her, though. She'd make some for herself. Well, assuming that pancakes weren't Miu's plan for breakfast already, but what were the chances of that?


	29. Daily Life: Day Three (The One Where Angie Says Atua Is Gay)

After hearing the morning announcement, Shuichi got dressed, then peered out of the door. Kiibo was in the lobby, slowly gathering up his 'followers' to walk them over toward the dining hall. A sweeping look around had Shuichi's eyes land on Tenko, who was standing against the side of the staircase, arms crossed as she glared at the group. Shuichi stepped out of his room, closing the door behind himself before he approached Tenko, "Morning, Chabashira."

"...Morning," Tenko said, clicking her tongue as she glanced around the rest of the room, "Isn't human nature a funny thing, Saihara?"

"...What?" Shuichi questioned, not sure where she got that from.

"Oh," Tenko turned to look at him with a half-shrug, "This divide? Something like this was gonna happen as soon as Idabashi made the mistake of saying he wanted someone to run against. This split was gonna happen this same way after Yumeno died, so I just accelerated it... But we're already separating like this. It's so interesting how history always repeats itself."

"Oh, right," Shuichi gave a nervous chuckle, "I forgot that you're the Ultimate Anthropologist. Don't you think it's kind of weird, though, for you to end up on a side mostly composed of men?"

"Huh?" Tenko questioned, then raised two fingers to her own temple and squeezed one eye shut, "Well, I don't mind that so much. Though men are a source of all degeneracy, you did side with me. And with Ouma, who sided with me. You support Yumeno... Besides, none of you are really degenerate males anyway. No offense, but uh, all five of you are seriously beta cucks."

"Ah..." Shuichi hesitated, scratching at his own cheek with an unsteady smile, "I feel like I should be offended by it, but I guess I can't refute it either... I am just the Ultimate Artist, after all. What about Gokuhara though?"

"Gokuhara?" Tenko asked, blinking a few times, "No, he's one too. Just because he's the Ultimate Aikido Master... He admitted it when Yumeno beat him at tennis, and it's super easy to make him cry. So he doesn't scare me either. None of you do."

"Chabashira?" Somebody else looked for Tenko's attention, and that voice was unmistakable as anybody but Angie, "Hey, um, do you think Ouma would mind if I defected...? I sided with Idabashi yesterday 'cause I was following my gut, but Atua came to me in a dream last night and told me I was making a big mistake!"

"Well, Yonaga," Tenko turned to her, pointing a finger straight at her chest, "Why did you support Idabashi in the first place?"

"I dunno, because he's an Ultimate Leader?" Angie explained, "I never thought about which between Tojo and Yumeno should live... Because I know that Atua would grant whichever one died entrance into his paradise! No matter who died, it would be sad, but we can also be certain that it's not the end of all joy for them... In fact, I wrote a melody in honor of Yumeno. Once I check out� my lab, I'll play it for you, Chabashira... Even if you don't wish to allow me into your party."

"W-Well," Tenko stammered out, not expecting to be put on the spot like this, "Yonaga, if that's how you really feel... I won't hate you! But I am not the authority of this faction. That would be Ouma. However, you do have my blessing!"

"Speaking of Ouma," Angie leaned around Shuichi to look towards the men's dorm rooms, "Where is he? Or any of the other members of this faction, for that matter? Monokuma said everyone but Iruma was safe in their rooms, and I left my room right away. They haven't gone for the dining hall yet. Otherwise, I woulda asked Ouma first if I could join up!"

"I guess they're still asleep," Shuichi answered with a shrug, turning to look that way as well. He noticed while turning that Kiibo's group had already departed; So the single missing member, Kirumi, had arrived and they'd all left for the dining hall. Meanwhile, this group was still waiting for another four people.

Gonta left his room while Angie and Shuichi were watching the doors, though. He grouped up with them, then held a finger to his own lips in concern once they'd convened, "Gonta wonder...�Hoshi, Amami, and Ouma? Are they still sleeping, or awake?"

"Good point!" Tenko agreed, then pushed right past Gonta to knock on the nearest relevant door. It was Rantaro's, "Amaaaaami! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! I wanna eat, you degenerate male!" She turned to the others and narrowed her eyes, "Well? Knock on the other doors, will ya?"

Gonta agreed and went to Ryoma's door, pounding on it. Ryoma opened it immediately, "Ah. Gokuhara... What do you need?"

"Chabashira wants our group eat together!" Gonta explained, "Please join, Hoshi!"

"Oh, okay," Ryoma agreed, then stepped out into the lobby, "I was going to skip breakfast, but if you want me there, I'll join you."

"Of course we want you there!" Tenko chided, then continued pounding on Rantaro's door.

"Ouuuuma!" Angie chose Kokichi's door to knock on, "Atua wants to sing you a song! Good morning! How are you! What a lovely day! Good morn-"

"Yonaga," Shuichi tapped her shoulder, and she flinched away, then pouted at him when he continued, "That's not going to work..." He approached the door himself and gave it a small knock before calling out, "Ouma? Esteemed leader Ouma? Please come eat whatever Iruma's made for breakfast!" He felt dumb saying it, but felt that it was somehow the best way to get Kokichi's attention.

"Did I just hear my favorite artist ever say breakfast?" Kokichi was already talking when he'd only opened the door a crack, then he glanced over to Angie, "Yonaga, what are you doing? Aren't you Idabashi's concubine?"

"What? No!" Angie shook her head, "I devote all parts of my body to Atua," She explained, then pointed at Kokichi, "And Atua says that I should follow you instead of Idabashi. So what do you say, Ouma? Will you accept me as your party's priest?"

"It's not like this is a video game..." Kokichi muttered, then gave her an innocent smile, "But, of course, Yonaga! You'll fit in more with me and my friends than with those lamers anyway~!" He looked around at the others, "We are friends, right everybody?"

Shuichi wasn't sure why he found himself nodding. Gonta did too, and Ryoma just gave a knowing smile that seemed to be some sort of agreement. Tenko looked up, and gave the only audible answer, "Well, duh! I would never hang around degenerate males who aren't my friends! But Amami's going to fall out of favor if he doesn't get out here..." She raised her voice again, "REALLY soon! I am _hungry_!"

It took another minute before Rantaro opened his door, groaning, "Chabashira... I was drying my hair. Give me a break."

"Y-You were... Drying your hair...?" Tenko questioned, then put her hands on her hips, "Amami... You're even more trustworthy than a beta cuck. You're a metrosexual."

"Doesn't metrosexual imply a _straight_ guy who cares too much about his personal appearance?" Angie questioned, leaning closer to Rantaro, "Atua can tell these things, you know, Amami. He lets gays into his paradise too, but only if you accept him into your heart!" She lowered her voice to a stage whisper, "Atua loves hooking up with cute guys," She turned around then and looked between Shuichi and Kokichi, "That goes for you two, too, you know."

A beat of silence passed between everybody, and Tenko swooped in to save them.

"I'm starving, come on! Who cares who's gay or whose God is gay! I. Want. Breakfast," Tenko hissed, pointing toward the door, "Iruma's eggs or whatever are gonna get cold before we can get any of them!"

"LesbiansgetintoAtua'sparadiseforfree," Angie blurted out at top speed, placing a hand against Tenko's arm before running off toward the door, "Okay, yeah, let's eat!"

Tenko ran after Angie, Gonta ran after Tenko, and everybody else wasn't far behind, powerwalking rather than running because they just didn't care quite that much.


	30. Daily Life: Day Three (Naming The Group)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi i made myself sad ok bye enjoy

Shuichi arrived to the dining hall along with the rest of his group, and as soon as they walked in through the newly-available outer door, Shuichi noticed that where there had once been one large tables, were two separate ones. Both tables had platters full of pancakes, though the platter was more empty at the table occupied by Kiibo's group. Miu was among them, but only because she always used Maki as a chair. That was a continuing theme.

Miu spotted the group, and pointed toward the other table with a sweet smile, "Hey there! I separated the tables, since I figured, everyone might prefer to sit with their friends..."

"Yonaga," Kiibo spoke up, looking at her as she trailed in behind the rest of Kokichi's followers, "I'd express my disappointment in you for your defection, but... I do believe that group suits you more."

"Thanks, Idabashi!" Angie grinned at him with a small wave, "No hard feelings, right? It's just that Atua tells me what to do, and..."

"I understand," Kiibo nodded, then gestured toward the other table, "You should eat. Iruma made some spectacular pancakes this morning."

Shuichi glanced over the table of Kiibo's group and noted that Kaede was scarfing the pancakes down like nobody's business. For some reason, Shuichi had the feeling that a love for pancakes was a fairly common trait for detectives to have. It was only a glance that he spared in that direction, though, because he sat down moments later to try and claim at least one pancake before Tenko ate all of them. While Tenko was stuffing her face, Angie leaned forward on the table and held a finger up, "So. Ultimate Labs."

"Right, a bunch more opened up, yeah?" Tenko asked, trying to remember what Monokuma had said, "Wasn't yours one of them, Yonaga?"

"It was. I want to try it for myself first, though, before I play anything for any of you guys. I might have to tune the piano or something, you know?" Angie said, "So I don't want you guys coming to check it out until I say so!"

"That makes sense," Tenko agreed, tapping her own forehead, "Uhh... Who else got labs? I was kinda distracted when that bear showed up."

"Ouma, Momota, Maki, and... Shinguji," Ryoma spoke up, leaning his chin in his hand, "That's who else. Shinguji's is locked because he died before it became available. That's what Monokuma said."

"Thanks, Hoshi," Kokichi said, grinning at him, "Maybe you're the Ultimate Photographic Memory-Haver?"

"Photographic memory would be remembering anything I see. It's audiographic memory," Ryoma explained, "It doesn't work with every single thing I hear, but I can usually store information that's not relevant to the context around it word for word. As in... A school lecture? Slips my mind. Someone playing a loud J-Pop song in the middle of that lecture? I'll never forget the song. It doesn't seem like that's an Ultimate talent, though. Just a quirk."

"Well, if it's a quirk it's a pretty interesting one," Tenko said, finally pausing in her stack of pancakes to point her fork out toward Kokichi, "So, Ouma. Gameplan? Right now, you and Idabashi are gonna end up tied on votes. Iruma's not taking sides here, but she's going to vote for Idabashi because of his talent when the actual vote rolls around..."

"Well, I dunno!" Kokichi shrugged, slipping his hands back behind his neck, "We don't even know... When a vote's going to happen. For that matter, does it need to? I know you wouldn't accept Idabashi as the student council president even if he won the vote, Chabashira."

"E-Eh?" Tenko questioned, raising her hands defensively, but then sighed and looked away, sheepish, "Well, yeah, that's pretty obvious, isn't it? He didn't even act like he was considering that Yumeno should live... He just said that Tojo should, he didn't show any sympathy or anything. What an idiot... Even if he is the Ultimate Supreme Leader, I can't follow someone I couldn't ever be friends with."

"Yeah, so," Kokichi continued, picking up a pancake in his hand to bite into it, "Actually having a student council president at all doesn't make sense anymore. Really, it's just more plausible that we act as two separate units. I'm the leader of one, and Idabashi is the leader of the other!"

"Gonta doesn't think Idabashi will agree..." Gonta mumbled, eating his pancakes in the same manner that Kokichi was.

"Idabashi doesn't need to agree, though," Rantaro said, tapping his fingers against the table, "Really, even if Idabashi wins an actual vote, that doesn't matter. We can all just keep acting the same way we are now. It's just an arbitrary title."

"That's a good point," Shuichi piped in his agreement. Maybe that was why he'd sided with Kokichi to begin with? The idea that a singular leader was even necessary was a bit of a strange one in this situation, when it wasn't like there were any large-scale decisions to be made. This was just fourteen teens trying their best to live and learn in this bizarre school that seemed both built to support and condemn them. Leadership was unnecessary...

And in truth, this splinter group that Shuichi had found himself in was more of an alliance on equal footing. Kokichi was technically the leader thanks to his position in the election prior to this, but if anyone took a leadership position, it was Tenko. Even she deferred to others for advice and plans, and Angie took command for a few minutes earlier on.

Shuichi still wasn't sure that having factions at all was a good idea, but if there had to be factions at all, he was satisfied with the one he'd picked. In any case, "Oh, Ouma. Your lab was open too, right? I want to check it out... Also," He spared a glance at Angie, "I know you don't want us hearing you play until you get used to your lab, but are you sure that you want to be alone there?"

"I'm never alone, Saihara," Angie assured him, holding both hands to her face but for a single finger that she was licking maple syrup off of, "Atua is with me, always. I know that he will protect me, no matter what. Besides, it isn't like anybody else is going to die, so I don't have anything to worry about anyway... The Killing Game is never gonna start. If there's one thing to be said about Shinguji, he made sure he didn't begin it."

"That's a good point, Yonaga," Rantaro agreed, "I was thinking about that. The Monopad describes The Killing Game in no uncertain terms... There is a victim, and there is the blackened who must be found out. The blackened will be executed once found, or set free if the wrong student is pointed to. So, Shinguji's murder-suicide was actually not a round of the game at all. We still exist in a pre-Killing-Game world..."

"Well, this one, anyhow," Ryoma agreed, though he was pointing something out with those words. Everyone knew what the term Killing Game meant, in some small sense, as soon as Monokuma said it. Nobody seemed to be able to truly remember why, but the idea itself was not a foreign concept, "Who knows how many Killing Games came before us? But as far as _our_ world is... No, there is no Killing Game here. Shinguji did make sure to act outside of the realm of the game. Perhaps, in some way, that's put a wrench in Monokuma's plans."

"Kinda seems that way," Gonta agreed, looking up at the ceiling, "Monokuma says students should be friends and not kill now. Shinguji bullied bad bear, and now, we live with friends..." He turned his gaze back to the table now, taking a few deep breaths, "All friends but one friend... Yumeno..."

"She's gonna be watching over us..." Tenko assured Gonta with a rough smile, "Himiko wouldn't just go and die for good on us. She was the mortal vessel of a Goddess after all. Maybe we can't talk to her now, and she can't talk to us, but she's gonna be watching, and we gotta make her proud."

"That's right," Kokichi agreed, giving a thumbs-up, "Hey, if we need to give our group a name, we should call ourselves something in honor of Yumeno, right?"

"Tennis Fans?" Ryoma offered without hesitation.

"That's fine, but kinda vague," Angie said, "I mean... Atua and Yumeno are Gods of different things, so they can coexist. It'd be fine to call ourselves Yumeno's Angels, right? Because we're the ones left on Earth, carrying out her memory..."

"I love it!" Tenko exclaimed, and everyone else nodded as well. Ryoma didn't seem disappointed that his idea was shot down, either.

Yumeno's Angels.

Shuichi liked that.


	31. Daily Life: Day Three (Kokichi's Lab)

"Hey, Saihara," Kaede called out, stopping Shuichi just as he was about to leave the Dining Hall with the rest of his group to check out Kokichi's lab. She grabbed for his shoulder, and he turned to look at her, "Hey. Want to stop by my lab this afternoon, let's say... Two o clock? Shirogane wants to get started on our tutoring sessions right away, if you're still up for that."

"Oh, yeah, absolutely!" Shuichi agreed, glad to hear that Kaede and Tsumugi hadn't changed their minds when they'd gravitated to different groups of people. He wasn't sure if anyone in his direct group would be willing or able to tutor him in everything he missed the way that a detective and astronaut could.

"Great! We'll see you then," Kaede released his shoulder, then tapped it again before waving as she turned around to go back to her own table. Despite that group beginning to eat sooner than Shuichi's, it seemed that they were still picking at their breakfasts and making conversation among themselves, though not all as a group. Kiibo was chatting with Kirumi, and Kaito with Maki while Miu had stood up and was talking to Tsumugi in Kaede's absence.

Shuichi watched until Kaede sat back down, joining Miu and Tsumugi's conversation without missing a beat, then turned and left the hall, running down the hallway towards the gym to catch up with his group. They hadn't gotten far, and didn't realize he'd been gone since nobody noted his return.

"Okay, is everyone ready?" Kokichi asked, snickering as he held a hand against the door which obviously led to his lab. The door bore an image of a white rabbit in a top hat, a very typical image for stage magicians, "It's time to see just how amazing my Ultimate Lab is!"

After receiving nods all around, Kokichi pushed his door open, then stumbled through the door before he brought his arms up in a sweeping gesture around himself, though he was just getting the first look at all of this himself. The room was full up, stuffed to bursting with all sorts of magician tools, primarily the large items used for more elaborate tricks. A number of them were the sort with tricks that the common public knew well by now...

But, Shuichi realized, some more interesting things were hidden behind the pedestrian ones. Kokichi grinned at the collection, then at his friends, fidgeting with his bowtie as he put on what could only be described as a stage voice, "Come one, come all, to Kokichi Ouma's Traditional Vaudeville Magic Show!" He dropped the tone and laughed, "Man, just looking at this stuff gets me itching to perform again..."

"So we should put on a show!" Tenko stepped forward, "I mean, being adjacent to the gym makes it super easy to set something up. I bet putting on a magic show would cheer everyone up whether they like you as a person or not!" 

"You know, Chabashira, you're probably right!" Kokichi agreed with a small giggle, striking a somewhat cute pose, "Plus, you are strong. And so is Gokuhara!" His smile grew, "I also have a musician and an artist on my side! Hey, that's exactly what you need for the perfect magic show!"

"It is, isn't it?" Shuichi noted under his breath, as if lost in thought, and he was. He was already thinking about what it would mean to help Kokichi put on a show. He hoped he'd just be recruited to make posters and superfluous set pieces, since he'd rather not be privy to the show enough to find out the secret behind Kokichi's tricks. Shuichi had a small fondness left over from childhood for the joy of wondering just how somebody accomplished something which looked to be impossible. 

"Okay, so, usually I need a cute girl to be my assistant," Kokichi started, raising up a hand, "Well, I'm nobody to ask about that, but that's how traditional vaudeville magic shows work! You all know what the secret is behind the sawing a woman in half trick, right?"

"Yes, that is generally common knowledge," Rantaro said. Shuichi did already know that one, so he nodded too.

"Gonta... Not sure what Ouma mean," Gonta admitted, clasping his hands in front of himself, "Do not halve women!"

"Ah, Gokuhara, you glorious simpleton," Kokichi laughed, reaching out to place a hand against Gonta's elbow, since that was what he could reach, "I'm not actually cutting anyone in half! See... Okay, well, Chabashira? Yonaga? Your skin colors are different so it won't look like the actual trick, but couldja help me demonstrate?"

"Gladly," Angie said, then looked to Tenko.

Tenko hesitated, but then flashed a thumbs-up, "Well, okay, but only if I get to be the legs."

"You're too tall to be a comfortable torso anyway," Angie noted, twirling the end of her hair, "Uh, well... I guess that legs are uncomfortable no matter how tall you are, though."

"I'm all legs!" Tenko explained, gesturing to her own legs in her khaki short-shorts, "My torso is tiny and weird if you take the legs away! No way am I going to un-flatter myself that much, even just in front of a bunch of beta cucks..."

"I thought last we'd determined," Ryoma spoke up, "Only Gokuhara and I are beta cucks, and everyone else is gay?"

"That's true!" Angie piped in, pointing at people as she chimed out, "Beta Cuck, Beta Cuck, Gay, Gay," She hesitated on Shuichi, then said, "...Beta Gay."

"That's fair," Shuichi admitted.

"Anyway!" Tenko interrupted, then pointed at the box for this particular trick, "Gokuhara, help me move that out to where there's some more space, okay? Can't do this with the trick pushed up against all the others in storage!"

"Okay!" Gonta agreed, and everybody else moved out of the way while those two moved the trick over, each of them picking up one end. Shuichi couldn't help but notice that since Himiko's death, Tenko was actually behaving in a _more_ rational way, even with the scene she'd made at dinner.

Maybe she realized that not everybody was out to get her after all, thanks to the people who worked to find out what was really happening during the trial. Thanks to the people she'd chosen to surround herself with, who would have gladly taken her best friend's life over the life of another had it come to that. Choosing between two people to save was difficult, but Shuichi realized something as he watched the satisfied look on Kokichi's face.

Kokichi wasn't just voting to save Himiko. He was voting to save Tenko too. She needed the reassurance that others loved the one she was full of love for, and could love her as a human being too.

Was that really Kokichi's intention? Shuichi thought, thinking that far ahead seemed implausible... But not impossible. A magician had to read a crowd, right? Maybe he'd just gotten lucky reading this one.


	32. Daily Life: Day Three (Magic Trick)

Once Tenko and Gonta moved the magic trick over into the open space of Kokichi's ultimate lab, Kokichi stepped up to it and placed his hands against the tops of the boxes, "Okay, Gokuhara! I'm going to show you how this magic trick is done, okay?"

"Yes! Gonta want to understand!" Gonta agreed, then Tenko and Angie both stepped up to the trick.

"So..." Tenko started, "The first part of the trick is done offstage, out of sight. Usually one of these boxes would be on wheels, so it's kind of weird that this one doesn't. None of the tricks do, actually..."

"That is weird. Most tricks are supposed to have wheels because it'd look cluttered to have everything for a show onstage at once, even if none of them require backstage setup," Kokichi noted, then looked to Tenko, "Why do you know that, though, Chabashira?"

"Er," Tenko froze, then gave a sheepish smile as she brought her hand up to scratch behind her ear, "Well, everyone likes magic shows, right...? Just because I'm a scientist doesn't mean I don't like things like that from time to time..."

"Knowing that tricks are supposed to have wheels isn't that weird a thing to realize, I guess," Kokichi admitted, then gestured to the box, "Chabashira! Why don't you show off the part of the trick that's supposed to be done offstage?"

"Right!" Tenko nodded, glad to be moving on, then pulled open the box on the end and climbed into it, curling up. This particular version of the box trick just had a small compartment there. Gonta took note of it.

"And, Yonaga?" Kokichi asked, pulling open the double-lid that both halves of the box had.

"Mmhm!" Angie moved to climb in, "See, the torso has to be somebody supposedly volunteering from the audience, but who's actually a plant that knows the trick. You act like you're lying down on your back inside the box, and make it look that way to the audience, but you actually fold your legs under yourself," She demonstrated, being pretty good at pretending like she was lying down, but also making a show of adjusting her legs to fit inside the one half of the box.

"At the same time," Kokichi explained, tapping Tenko's half. She stuck her legs through the hole on the end, "Chabashira puts her legs out, so it seems like Angie did it. Angie's head and a portion of her torso are out the other end. Were the legs actually similar in appearance to Angie's, it would look like she was just one person. Then," Kokichi pulled the two halves of the box apart, "It looks like you cut someone in half and they're fine! But it's actually two people. Plus, in an actual trick, you'd put a saw between the halves of the box first."

"Gonta understand!" Gonta confirmed, then looked between the two halves of the box, "But... Box makes tall lady. Lady not that tall!"

"That's a good point," Kokichi held a finger up in the air, "And, even without all of us explaining what was going on... Even you wouldn't have been fooled by that, would you? That's why not just anyone can be a magician. You have to be able to draw everyone's attention away from the stuff that's obviously fake. You have to be able to make them _believe_."

As Kokichi was explaining, Angie and Tenko both individually got out of their halves of the box. Tenko returned to the group and clapped her hand against Kokichi's back with a grin, "Never thought I'd be helping the Ultimate Magician reveal one of his tricks!"

"It's a trick that everyone already understands," Kokichi rolled his eyes, then looked around to everybody, "Okay. Well, if I'm going to actually put on a show... Gokuhara and Chabashira can help move things, Saihara can make posters for it, Yonaga can help me with music, Amami can add wheels to the tricks... And I guess," Kokichi turned to Ryoma, "That'd leave Hoshi as my assistant. In fair distribution of labor, anyway!"

"Are you serious?" Ryoma asked, glaring up at Kokichi.

"One hundred percent, Hoshi! You are now a pretty girl. Deal with it," Kokichi said.

"Well, as long as you don't make me dress up or anything, I guess that's not so bad," Ryoma shrugged it off, dropping his glare, "I assume this means you won't be doing any tricks along the lines of that box trick."

"I could never do a two-assistant trick at this academy. In fact, I can't use audience plants at all. Part of the illusion is that it's just a random person, and we can't achieve that in a fourteen-person environment with very set friend groups," Kokichi explained, "As for dressing up, I wouldn't make you wear heels and a red dress or anything! But your clothes are kind of plain, don't you think? You could do with something glittery. A jacket, or just a tie if that's too much for you..."

Ryoma paused, then gave Kokichi an exasperated look, "Ouma, I'm not questioning your judgment, but I would love to know where in the world you think I could obtain either of those items?"

"Er," Kokichi didn't have an answer for that.

Tenko did, though. She stepped forward, "It's possible we could ask Tojo for a favor, if we could find the materials in the warehouse," Despite being the one to suggest it, she didn't seem especially fond of the idea.

"Chabashira on the right track..." Gonta said, "But..."

"Right. Tojo and Idabashi are the two in the other camp who aren't about to be very fond of us," Shuichi said. He knew that the rest of Kiibo's group didn't have hard feelings toward this one, and nobody here had hard feelings against them. Well, for all Shuichi knew, everyone else in that group also had hard feelings toward Kokichi and Tenko, but at least there wasn't the same tension that Kirumi and Kiibo seemed to carry.

Rantaro raised his hand up and made a suggestion, "As the Ultimate Maid, shouldn't Iruma be able to sew? It's not like we're looking for anything complicated that would require a cosplayer's touch..."

"You're so right!" Tenko exclaimed, "Hey, we gotta get to work right away. This is gonna be awesome..."

"We should probably all buddy up," Angie spoke up, "Well, my buddy is Atua, and I'm gonna go check out my lab so I can do the music for the show. So... Um, Chabashira and Hoshi should go to talk to Iruma about getting some sparkly clothes..."

"I can get started on adding wheels to these tricks," Rantaro offered, "Gokuhara, could you help me out with that?"

"Gladly!" Gonta exclaimed.

"That leaves me and Saihara, right?" Kokichi asked, then turned to Shuichi, "There's not a lot I can actually do to prepare, and you draw at like... Lightspeed, right? So, we can go check out all the other labs that opened up! I want everyone else to get around to the new Ultimate Labs too. It's good that we know what sort of resources are around!"

"Sounds good to me," Shuichi agreed, "But, I do need to be at Akamatsu's lab at two. I have a... Book club meeting, with her and Shirogane."

"No problem! When two rolls around, Yonaga should be done investigating her lab, so I can join her and Atua," Kokichi laughed. It sounded kind of like he was making fun of her, but it was so good-natured that she didn't get mad at all. Besides, at least he was acknowledging that Atua existed, Shuichi figured. Angie would be happy with that much.

"Great," Shuichi smiled around at everyone, "Do you want to all walk back here together for a debriefing sort of thing after dinner?"

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Tenko agreed.

With that sorted out, the pairs began to disperse, everyone happy to have a sudden purpose. It was good to have something to do.


	33. Daily Life: Day Three (Momota + Tsumugi)

"Okay, Saihara!" Kokichi said, an eagerness very clear in his voice, "Gameplan. Momota's lab is on the second floor, so we'll hit it first. Then, Maki's on the third floor! I also kinda want to investigate Shinguji's, even though I know we won't be able to get into it. We should be able to finish all of that by two."

"Yeah, that works for me," Shuichi agreed, making his way out into the hallway. Kokichi came along with him, and he walked toward the stairs. Once reaching the second floor, he was surprised to see an entirely new corridor which made its way over the entrance hall, with railings over which the door could be seen.

"Heh," Kokichi commented on it, looking down into the hall, "This should be Akamatsu and Shirogane's new hangout. It was really convenient that they were watching the door before, right...? Imagine if we had voted somebody as the culprit in that trial..."

"That wouldn't have happened, though," Shuichi said, continuing past the entrance hall area, "You had Shinguji's note, after all. It wasn't like you'd keep that hidden if something started looking the wrong direction."

"Actually," Kokichi's voice dropped a few decibels, almost like he was having trouble saying this, "I said I held onto the note to make sure we found all the facts, but actually, I was just scared that it was faked to keep the culprit safe. That's the real reason I saved it as long as I did..."

"Well," Shuichi couldn't help but chuckle a bit, "You're not quite as cunning as I thought you were, then."

Kokichi stared up at him, practically looking holes right through Shuichi's face, "Yeah, don't you dare tell anybody that."

"Sure," Shuichi said, "I'll help preserve the illusion."

"Thanks," Kokichi said, then paused before a door. It was jet black, just like Korekiyo's clothing had been, and had heavy, intimidating handles on either side of the double doors. This had to be his lab, "Huh. Well, that's simple and straightforward. I guess that's how assassinations are supposed to be, so it's not that surprising..."

"I'm guessing the inside is pretty empty compared to the other labs, since Monokuma said it's unfinished..." Shuichi noted, then stepped forward and tried the handle despite knowing that it wasn't supposed to be open. It didn't even budge the way a door that was merely locked would. Shuichi had to assume it was boarded up from the inside or something similar.

Kokichi nodded, "Yeah, that seems about right. We should just go to Momota's lab... Hey, how do you feel about bugs?"

"I don't have much opinion one way or another. I joined Momota looking for bugs out in the courtyard, but I probably wouldn't wanna touch one with my bare hands or anything..." Shuichi answered.

"They actually kind of weird me out," Kokichi gave his own response to the question, "I don't like seeing them. It should be fine if they're in cages, but I'm pretty glad there aren't any around campus... I can't even touch bugs through a paper towel or anything. I'll need to live with someone who's able to get rid of them for me once I graduate, probably."

"Pft," Shuichi couldn't help but laugh a little bit at that, "I wouldn't expect that from you, Ouma."

"Even a great magician can be icked out by things!" Kokichi protested, "Besides, it's not like we ever need to work with bugs or anything... So it doesn't even matter!"

"Whatever you say," Shuichi said, then reached the door that had to be Kaito's Lab. �It had a large beetle emblazoned on the front of it, and it was a sliding door style. Shuichi hesitated, then lifted his hand and knocked in spite of himself.

"Yo, come in!" Kaito shouted out from inside the lab, so Shuichi grabbed hold of the door's handle and slid it to the right, stepping inside. It had the look of a forest not unlike the one around the school campus, but each and every tree had glass cages set inside the trunks, three per tree, with different types of bugs. Kaito was seated in a clearing which had a desk and a huge pile of insect-classification books.

Aside from Kaito, Tsumugi was also in the room, sitting on top of the desk and flipping through what appeared to be a book of mantis varieties. Shuichi called out, "Hey! It's Saihara and Ouma. We decided to take a look around at all of the Ultimate Labs."

"Hello," Tsumugi looked up from her book and waved, "How are you both?"

"Glad these bugs are enclosed," Kokichi answered.

"Ha!" Kaito laughed, looking at him, "Are you not a fan of bugs, Ouma?"

"They freak me out," Kokichi said, then looked to Tsumugi, "You like bugs too, Shirogane?"

"Oh, yes, I do," Tsumugi answered, setting her book down to stand up and turn to face the pair, "A lot of sci-fi aliens look like bugs, after all... And really, I think if there are aliens out there, it's likely they'll be more buglike than us. Bugs have a lot more environmental survivability than mammals do, after all! The only reason we see them as so fragile is because they're small... It took a perfect storm for mammals to end up in charge of this planet, so it'll probably be bug-ish aliens we find first!"

"That's really interesting," Shuichi said, then looked to Kaito, "So, Momota. Are you glad that your Ultimate Lab is open now?"

"Am I?" Kaito asked, grinning, "I'm so happy! Sure, we couldn't go bug-hunting, but at least I've got some here," He hesitated a moment, then flashed a thumbs-up, "I'm not about to go releasing these on campus though! Some folks here really don't like bugs after all. Plus, a lot of these bugs don't even have any of their preferred foods anywhere outside, and if they got out to the rest of the world they could become invasive species depending on where this academy actually is..."

"That's very considerate of you," Shuichi smiled, then glanced at Kokichi, "Hey, Ouma. If you're not comfortable hanging out in here, you could step outside..."

"It's fine," Kokichi said, "As long as they're all behind glass, they don't really bother me," He crouched down to look at a stag beetle, "I mean, when there's no chance they'll crawl on me, I guess they might even be kind of cool."

"That's the spirit!" Kaito exclaimed, then turned back to Shuichi, "So, I'll probably be hanging out in here pretty often. Not all the time though. Fake outdoors can't compare to real outdoors, for one thing. And, Maki's lab also opened up. I haven't checked it out yet, but I bet she'll be really fond of it! So if the both of us just hung out in our individual labs all the time... We'd never actually hang out! And we attempted bug-hunting together. That means we're friends."

"I'm glad you're getting along," Shuichi said, "I thought that you might."

"Heh! You got some sorta friendship matchmaking skills, Saihara. I knew I was being smart when I decided we'd get along!" Kaito said, then turned back to his pile of books, "But dude, no offense, these books are so cool, and I had to take a break to chat with you guys... This is all there really is to my lab, by the way. Bugs, food for the bugs, and bug books. Perfection, basically."

"Ah, okay!" Shuichi agreed, then turned to where Kokichi was still staring at the stag beetle, "Ouma! Do you want to go upstairs and have a look at Maki's lab now?"

"Sure thing," Kokichi agreed, standing back up and walking straight toward the door. He was playing it cool, Shuichi noticed, but he did still seem to be uncomfortable in a room with so many bugs.


	34. Daily Life: Day Three (Maki + Miu)

The stairs to the third floor were right next to the door for Kaito's lab, so as soon as they left the land of the bugs Shuichi and Kokichi were able to go up to the next floor. This floor had huge windows along all of its wall, streaming in sunlight, though when Shuichi approached he noted that they must have been tinted on one side. Though light came through them freely, he couldn't see out at all. He pressed his palm against one, and the glass was thick. Too thick for anyone to easily break, he concluded, probably even Gonta with a tool for the job.

"Ah, look! It's Yonaga's lab," Kokichi pointed to a door that had a church organ drawn on it, using his other hand to shield his eyes from the incredible amount of sunlight coming onto this floor. The architecture and design of the floor had a very ethereal feel to it, as if it wanted to detach itself from reality and float away. It was calming; It made sense for Angie's lab to be on this floor, but Shuichi was a bit surprised that Maki's would be here.

Nonetheless, Kokichi led the way down the hallway, and though this floor seemed to be currently incomplete, there was only one other door. The design on it was a tree that seemed to have been made in a pixellated style. Shuichi stared at it for a minute, then Kokichi reached past him, around his right arm, and tapped it lightly.

"Do you need something from Mistress Maki?" Miu was already talking the moment the door was opened a crack, "Ah, hello. Master Saihara, Master Ouma. To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"Just checking out all the new Ultimate Labs," Kokichi answered, leaning to look past Miu. Shuichi caught himself doing the same. Maki's lab didn't seem like it matched an Ultimate Robot very much at all, instead being a rather picturesque, outdoorsy scene. There were flowers, cherry blossom trees, and a small, clear pond with rocks on one side. Maki was sitting on those rocks and dipping her feet into the pond while she read another one of Kaede's detective novels. Had she already finished the first one?

"Oh, I see!" Miu smiled, then turned and called out, "Mistress Maki! Would you like to see Saihara and Ouma right now?"

"Those two?" Maki asked, looking up as she folded her book closed over her thumb as a bookmark, "Sure. Thanks Iruma."

"Hey Maki!" Kokichi called out, striding into the room and looking around the room, "This doesn't seem much like a room for the Ultimate Robot, you know. And, uh, what's with the pond?"

Maki shrugged, "Well, my talent is just my own existence. That's not really anything that can be fostered, so I think that whoever made this academy... Knew that I grew up indoors and sheltered, so they gave me a lab that's just something I would like. Oh, and this pond is actually full of high-quality coolant, so I can stop using water..."

"That sounds nice," Shuichi noted as he walked up to where she was sitting, "It's really beautiful here, Maki. Is it okay if I paint the landscapes here sometime?"

"That's fine with me," Maki said, looking around, "I think... It might be based on a real place in the world. Somehow, it feels that way. Because I've always wanted to travel, ever since I started learning History and Geography..."

"Hey, Maki," Shuichi sat down next to her, "You know what? In three years, we'll all graduate from this place. And when we all get out of here, none of us have anything that's waiting for us, not really. So we may as well stick together, and people like you, Maki? I know you think the scientists who made you will take you back, but I know that we won't let that happen."

"Really? You think that?" Maki asked, looking past Shuichi to the others.

Miu froze, then waved her hand with a look of utter confusion, "What!? Of course we'll all do that! Mistress Maki, there's no fucking way I'd let anyone take you where you don't wanna be. And even if I'm the only one working for that, then you know it won't happen. But I won't be the only one working for that!"

"That's true," Kokichi added in, putting his hands on his hips, "I mean, I dunno if I'd be any use. I'm kind of an expert in being taken places I don't wanna be! But then, I'm also the leading master in getting out of those places, so I could probably be some help getting you back if everyone else somehow failed to keep you with us, Maki~! But, also, if you're a robot... How could you even lose a fight with a human if you tried?"

"You guys..." Maki mumbled, holding a hand close to her own chest, "Ah, I've never had friends before, and... It's so nice to know that I have the capability for that. You guys, and Momota too. And Yonaga, I think. At least, I feel like we're friends after she explained religion to me."

"I'm sure that she thinks of _you_ as a friend," Kokichi added in, "I think that it'd be super hard to get on Yonaga's bad side, actually. Well, maybe it's possible, but I can't even imagine how!"

Maki smiled, making small circles with her toes in the pool of coolant before her, "Thank you... I feel like I've learned more about being human in the past three days than I did my entire life before coming here. It's thanks to you guys," She took a deep breath then leaned backward to lie on the rocks, looking up at the ceiling. It was painted like a night sky, but with far more stars than anyone could see in the sky without a telescope, "I don't want this to end. Even with what Shinguji did. I want this to go on forever," She reached her hand out in front of herself, spreading her fingers, "Here, I can almost feel like I'm not fake at all."

"That's because you aren't," Shuichi offered, "When I make art, it's not a fake creation. The scientists who made you made a human. Not a fake human at all. Every human is created, you just have different materials."

"Huh," Maki said, "I never thought about it that way before."

"Uh, hey, Saihara," Kokichi stepped forward, "I hate to interrupt this touching moment, but it's almost two. You had plans for that time, right?"

"You're right!" Shuichi noted, surprised, then turned to Maki, "I gotta go. But hey, Maki. Don't go thinking things like 'I'm not really human' anymore, okay? If you do, then I'll be mad at you."

"Okay, Saihara. I'll keep that in mind," Maki chuckled, then waved her hand, "Get to your appointment, dummy."


	35. Daily Life: Day Three (Kaede's Past)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok in this chapter I've inserted some ref images for the swapped characters! (Finally) but if you want to grab the individual images, here's a gallery of them.  
> https://sta.sh/2edgd91s3ck
> 
> Also if anyone was amazing enough to draw fanart of this fic uhh?? Please make sure to link it to me and I'll give you a shout out in the next chapter's notes, and also love you for all time. Thanks!

�

 

Shuichi needed to get to Kaede's lab, but as soon as he left Maki's, he and Kokichi found themselves face-to-face with Kirumi and Kiibo. Before any of them had the chance to go into anything resembling panic, Kirumi spoke in a calm and level tone, "Ah, Ouma. Saihara. We were looking for you. We're telling everybody that we'll be holding the Student Council President election one week from today."

"That works for me," Kokichi gave a nod, then looked up at Kiibo and smirked, tapping his own cheek, "But, are you sure about this election, Idabashi? I have six supporters. You have five, since Iruma's technically a neutral party..."

"I'm not worried at all," Kiibo said, and he sounded genuine, "I have faith that when the elections actually roll around, people will make the right choice."

"Me too," Kokichi snickered, then stepped around Kiibo, arms behind his back, "Anyway, I'd lo-o-ove to stay and chat, but Saihara has somewhere to be, meaning that I also have somewhere to be!" He walked backwards down the hallway, then knocked on the door of Angie's Lab, "Hey Yonaga! Time to switch buddies!"

Angie opened the door in seconds, "Right on! You want to walk Saihara down to Akamatsu's lab together?"

"Absolutely," Kokichi agreed, then Angie left her lab and started to walk towards the stairs, pausing when she saw at the end of the hallway the glare that Kiibo wore. She brushed it off as being something Kokichi said though, and started to bounce down the stairs two at a time. Shuichi followed her, and Kokichi made his way after both of them, attempting to slide down the railing but failing halfway through and barely catching himself from falling.

At least Angie and Shuichi didn't see that, being ahead of him. Once reaching Kaede's lab, Shuichi knocked. Kaede answered the door with a smile, "Hey Saihara! Glad you could make it. Ah, Ouma, Yonaga. How are you doing?"

"As good as can be expected," Kokichi answered with a half shrug.

Angie gave her answer next, "Despite the recent tragedy, Atua always fills my heart with enough joy to share with those around me!"

"Okay, then," Kaede said with a bit of a nervous laugh. Angie was a whole lot to handle sometimes. She stepped back and gestured, "Anyway, Saihara, come in! Shirogane should be here any minute, if you are, that means it's two..."

"What?" Shuichi asked.

"Nothing!" Kaede said, then shut the door behind him and walked over to one of the traincar-like tables and motioned for him to sit across from her. She had a number of papers spread out in front of herself, "Turns out, there were actually a bunch of official study guides in the warehouse. I figure these will be pretty useful..."

"Why?" Shuichi asked, and Kaede gave him a confused look before he clarified, "I mean, why did you use my arrival as a sign of what time it is?" He glanced around the room, "Why aren't there any clocks in here? I feel like the only other Lab without a clock is Maki's..."

"Ah... I think that's to make fun of me," Kaede said, fidgeting in her seat, "Um. I think I'd feel more comfortable explaining to you once Shirogane gets here."

"Oh, okay. No pressure," Shuichi said, raising his hands in front of himself defensively, "If you don't want to tell me at all, I'd understand that too."

"No... It's fine. You told me about your past, so I should be able to trust you with mine, too. It's not fair if I'm just keeping your secret, while letting you think that I'm really just fine," Kaede mumbled, then looked to her door again as there was a small knock. She stood up slowly and wandered over, pulling it open, "Ah, Shirogane..."

"Sorry, I'm about five minutes late," Tsumugi apologized, "I was reading books about bugs. In Momota's lab, they're really detailed pictures and I can definitely see the influence of many insect features on the designs of movie aliens. Especially the Xenomorph!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kaede motioned for Tsumugi to come inside and closed the door again, "But I'm glad you were having fun."

"Ah..." Tsumugi noticed as she approached Shuichi, then turned back to Kaede again, "The mood in here is pretty somber, huh? Did something happen?"

"No, nothing like that," Kaede explained as she sat back down. Tsumugi slid in next to her while she continued to answer, "I was just thinking how unfair it is, that Saihara trusted us with his secret but I didn't share mine. So..."

"Akamatsu," Tsumugi lifted a hand to place it against her shoulder, "Mine too. That way, we'll all know about each other, and it doesn't have to be such a big deal."

"Shirogane... Thank you," Kaede said, then took a deep breath and brought her hands up, folding them together on the table in front of herself, "The truth is... I was actually born without humanity's sixth sense. I can't actually perceive the passage of time as it relates to myself. And that was never a problem most of my life, since I can still view time as a series of hard facts. And there was always someone there to keep me grounded so I didn't space out for too long without realizing, but..."

Kaede continued, "About a year ago, my parents were killed in front of my eyes. The killer was caught easily, and got a life sentence. The government decided since I was an Ultimate, and already a teenager, I could live alone on the inheritance I got. The past year before I came here was actually the worst of my life, because I was always... Alone. I lost hours, even days. I never went outside, because I was so scared of the outside world... And when the batteries on all the clocks in my house ran out, all I had to even remind me what time it was, was a watch that ran slow. I was just an absolute trainwreck..."

"Akamatsu," Tsumugi gasped, "That's... Terrifying. How did you manage for an entire year?"

"I ate when I was hungry and slept when I was tired, and that's... It," Kaede explained with a lackluster shrug, "To tell you the truth, the moment that Saihara fell out of that locker in the classroom across the way was the first happiness I felt in a long time. There was a clock on the wall and a person there. Being around all of you, even though I'm still scared, I've felt more alive than I have since my parents died. Even with what Shinguji did, even with what Monokuma says about a Killing Game."

"Akamatsu, you didn't need to tell us that," Shuichi said, "It sounds like the last year was really painful for you..."

"It was," Kaede said, the cool composure she'd kept while telling the story giving way to a choked strain in her voice, "That's why... I need to do everything I can, now. For everyone here. Because you all brought me back to life, after a year when I was just living dead."


	36. Daily Life: Day Three (Tsumugi's Past)

"I guess it's my turn," Tsumugi said with a heavy sigh, "You're both trusting me to know these things about you, so I have to trust you too. Well, I already would, you know. I probably would tell you this... If you wanted me to, even if neither of you told me a thing about yourselves. Not just anybody, though. You two are important to me, though. I can't explain why, since we just met, but I consider you both precious friends."

"Thanks, Shirogane," Kaede gave her a slight smile, rubbing at her own eyes, "I'll carry your secret with care..."

"My secret. Well, the truth is, it's why I want to make space travel accessible to everyone. That's the goal which made me into the Ultimate Astronaut," Tsumugi leaned against the table, "But, truth be told, I didn't start off wanting to do that, the catalyst would have to be my big brother... Well, technically he's my stepbrother."

Tsumugi took a deep breath, staring at the far wall to try and compose herself before she continued, "Ah, ignoring anything else about him, he came into my family when I was still young, so he really is just like a normal brother to me. He was always saying how one day, he'd go to space, but... He'd always been sickly. There wasn't any chance that he could pass the physical requirements to be an astronaut, so... I made him a promise that I'd be the one to make it possible for him to get to space. I made the promise when I was little, but I still feel obligated to keep my word... Even if I'm not so fond of that brother anymore."

"Why would you go to such lengths to keep a promise for somebody you don't even like?" Shuichi asked, "It seems weird. If you had enough potential to become the Ultimate Astronaut, surely you could have excelled at anything else you put your mind to..."

"It stopped being about him a long time ago. Ah, he did something to hurt me, but you don't need to know the details of that. Fill in the blanks however you want, it doesn't matter what it was that he did, all that matters is that he stabbed me in the back," She was quiet, and took a slow blink before she continued speaking, "It's about the promise I made, and my own ambition. I'm going to make space travel possible for normal, everyday people. I'll make it comfortable and sustainable... And," She paused, "Oh, no, that's just petty."

"You won't ever let your brother on one of your spaceships, right, Shirogane?" Kaede asked, and Tsumugi was almost surprised at the accuracy of that guess before she remembered Kaede's talent, "I don't think that's petty at all. If you made him such a big promise, and then he betrayed you? It's only fair that you don't keep it as a promise to him."

"Ah, Akamatsu," Tsumugi was surprised, but collected herself before she spoke again, looking between the pair, "You know. I'd bring both of you on a space cruiser with me. You could come along, and... We could have our book club but for real, since Saihara will be all caught up by then! And, and... We can play games too, and just enjoy the trip. We could go to Jupiter in the springtime, or even beyond the Milky Way Galaxy. Because I'm going to make that possible! I'll do it for me. And... for the people I still love."

"I know you'll be able to do it, Shirogane," Shuichi said, reaching out across the table to put his hands on hers. Kaede did the same thing, and the three of them shared weak smiles before Shuichi spoke again, "We'll stay friends, and I know that we'll be able to do that. With your skill and ambition, there's no way you'll fail to take us to space with you."

"Well," Tsumugi couldn't stop a chuckle that shook itself free of her somber mood, "First, we have a different challenge to surmount, don't we, Saihara? Getting you caught up on a middle school education. We should stop being so sappy and actually get to work on what we came here for, right?"

"Good point," Shuichi agreed, reclaiming his hands to grab for and flip through the study guides that Kaede had gathered from the warehouse, "I... Well, none of this looks completely foreign to me, so at least I guess I didn't lose much information from primary school in the three years I wasn't in school. That should make it less of an uphill battle, at least. I was always sort of okay at school."

"That's great, Saihara!" Kaede exclaimed, then pointed at the first line in the workbook he had open, "I think that as an artist, it's not that important that you learn anything past middle school second year curriculum for math or science... History is important to know, though. Also, Japanese, obviously, so you can read complicated kanji. It's up to you if you want to add anything else."

"Well, this seems like plenty to start with," Shuichi said, pulling the book closer to himself and peering at it. This was a Japanese Learning workbook, and it seemed to be written in a very intuitive way; It wasn't supplementary curriculum, but was actually the type of study guide designed for people who were looking to get a supplementary degree after dropping out or otherwise becoming unable to finish school. Exactly what Shuichi needed.

"It's kind of amazing that something like these workbooks were in the warehouse," Tsumugi noted, "I mean, I wouldn't have expected that..."

"It makes sense to me," Shuichi said, glancing at Kaede, who nodded her agreement. He decided to defer to her to explain.

Kaede turned to Tsumugi, "It's obvious that whoever put us here knows more about us than our Ultimate Talents. I don't have a clock in my room for example, they're making fun of me. And the fact that the room looks kind of like the inside of a train imitates my favorite mystery, Murder On The Orient Express."

"Maki's lab is proof of that, too," Shuichi added, "Rather than just being what you'd expect for an Ultimate Robot, it's actually an environment based on the sort of landscape that she likes. The only thing in there that's actually for the Ultimate Robot and not for Maki individually is a pool of high quality coolant. The rest is just stuff she likes."

Tsumugi gave a nod, "I see... Now that you mention it, Momota's lab did seem especially catered to him. It didn't have any dead bugs preserved or anything, they're all live ones."

"Well," Kaede paused, fidgeting with her hands, "How could somebody know all of these things about us? Unless whoever put us here knew us well..."

"How could that be possible?" Tsumugi asked, "I mean... How could we all know one person well enough that they'd know these things about us? It seems more likely that they got ahold of our Ultimate Initiative forms..."

"Oh, right, I forgot about those," Kaede exclaimed, "We did have to disclose certain thing�s on those forms when we accepted the invitations to be considered Ultimates. And truth be told, with these labs, I'd think it was the Ultimate Initiative themselves that put us here... But if it was them, they'd tell us. And Monokuma wouldn't have done what it did, and the poisons here in my lab wouldn't be lethal."

"Yeah..." Shuichi sighed, "Well, I guess there's no way for us to find out, though. Let's just work on this till it's time for dinner."


	37. Daily Life: Day Three (Dinnertime + Angie Panics)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be including in this chapter a bit of art I received! My friend wishes to remain anonymous, but hopes everyone likes it!

After spending the afternoon working through the study guides, Shuichi, Tsumugi, and Kaede were interrupted by a knock on the door of her Ultimate Lab. Kaede answered the door to find Kokichi and Angie standing there once more, and Angie spoke, "Hey hey! It's dinnertime you guys. We figured we would stop by here and make sure you knew~ Hey, Saihara!"

"Ah, thank you," Shuichi said, approaching them, "As part of making it seem like a train, there isn't a clock in here. We sort of lost track of time in our book club meeting," Lying twice in one sentence? By _our_ Shuichi Saihara? It's more likely than you think.

Kaede and Tsumugi also joined them in walking down to the dining hall, though once there everybody split up to their tables again. Shuichi sat down next to Kokichi, and Angie took his other side. A few minutes later, the rest of their group arrived, and shortly after everyone was seated, Miu delivered food to both tables then sat on Maki's lap to eat when it was requested of her.

"So," Kokichi started talking as he took some food onto his place, grinning at the rest of his group, "I know we _said_ we'd debrief back in my lab, but I don't actually care that much if the others overhear what we have to say. I know Yonaga's task went well..."

"Yeah!" Angie butted in, "My lab has a church organ and a portable keyboard, so I can use that latter one to make some music for the show."

"Yes," Kokichi confirmed, "But what about everybody else's tasks?"

"Iruma agreed to create a glittery jacket for me," Ryoma spoke up, "So I can efficiently be your assistant. After speaking with Iruma, Chabashira and I went to assist Amami and Gokuhara with adding wheels to the tricks."

"Thanks to the help, I was able to get it all done. Everything's got wheels now," Rantaro said, "So if there's anything else you'd like me to do, I'll be glad to."

"Well," Kokichi thought, looking up at the ceiling, "I have plenty of tools, but maybe some sort of effects? Something like confetti when I go onstage or something? Nothing too complicated, though. I was thinking we could have the show in three days. Day after the day after tomorrow."

"I can do something like that by tomorrow," Rantaro said, "I am the Ultimate Inventor, after all. You don't have to try and keep me from getting overwhelmed, because I won't."

"Still!" Kokichi protested, "All of you are working so hard to help me put on a show, so I don't want to ask too much of you... You're just being so nice to me, I just can't believe it! So... I'd be a real piece of shit if I kept asking you all for things."

"Hey!" Tenko pointed at Kokichi, loud and aggressive, "Ouma, don't you say that! We all want this magic show to happen, it's not like we're only helping you. We're all working to make something great happen here at this academy! Plus, if you're supposed to be fostering your talent here, like we all are... There's no way you could improve if you didn't have an audience to fool!"

"That is a good point," Kokichi chuckled, "Wow. Guess I didn't need to worry that I was making you guys do things for me just because I could..."

"Hell, maybe tomorrow, there'll be even more labs open! And then, one of us will want you to help us out, after the magic show is done," Tenko continued, pressing her palms together, "After all. We're friends, so we've totally got each other's backs, no matter what happens."

"Yes!" Gonta spoke up, "Gonta agree! We are friends... And friends will always help friends. That is fact."

"Tch. Can you all just stop being sappy for once in your lives?" Ryoma complained, but his tone didn't seem like one of genuine annoyance. This was his own way of contributing to the conversation, it seemed.

"Well, in any case," Shuichi decided to change the subject, "Ouma, are you sure that two more days before the show is enough?"

"Well," Kokichi shrugged, "We need, what, seven fliers? All of us already know where and when it's happening. Even if we just give those out the day before, what is anyone gonna say? Sorry, I have other plans that day? None of us have plans. Well, except that election, but it's going to be in a week. We have loads of free time. Like, always."

"That's a super good point!" Angie said, raising her hands up above her head, "I mean, it was really nice to feel like I had something specific to do today. I think, we gotta keep busy like this, make more plans. That way, we won't get bored and sad... Oh, also! I tested out my piano stuff today, so maybe. Instead of going back to Ouma's lab after dinner, since we already debriefed, I could play you all something?" She hesitated a moment, bringing her hands back down, "Like the song I wrote for Yumeno?"

"Yes!" Tenko almost shouted without any hesitation, then sheepishly continued at a more fitting volume, "I mean... That'd be great, Yonaga. I'm sure it's a lovely melody... That will properly honor her."

"Heheh," Angie let a smile onto her face, "You know, the more I realize how much you love Yumeno... The more I wonder if maybe, Atua's actually got a pantheon sort of deal going on, and he's just the King of it all. I'm waiting on an answer from him on that."

"Yonaga, you're a sweetheart," Tenko gave her a quiet chuckle, "In your own way. It's kind of scary at first, but you know, I've studied all sorts of ancient religions and yours doesn't seem all that different from them."

"Well, of course," Angie said, holding a finger to her own lips, "Atua's been the God of my island for as long as anyone can remember, and a long time before that too. I learned about other religions because, as Atua's oracle, I need to be able to explain Him in terms that make sense to outsiders, so I can draw parallels between our stories and other ones."

"Y-Your island?" Tenko asked, leaning toward Angie. Shuichi made a face as he realized that she was... drooling a little bit, "You mean, it's an entire geographical area that worships Atua?"

"Yes!" Angie answered, clasping her hands together, "It's a bit closer to the equator than any of Japan's main islands, but it technically got taken over during the early bits of World War 2... But like, Atua totally smote anyone who came onto the island and tried to make us change anything about our way of life, except learning Japanese and stuff. Cause of that, we get left off of maps pretty often. Our island has a 100% population of Atuists! No Buddhists, Shintoists, Christians, or anything."

"That means, your island..." Tenko grabbed onto both of Angie's shoulders, and she froze where she sat, her eyes suddenly glazing over. Tenko didn't seem to notice, "Is a present-day, living relic of an ancient civilization untouched by the trappings of society at large! I must investiga-"

"Chabashira!" Rantaro snapped, and she whipped her head to look at him, shocked. He explained, quickly, "Let go of Yonaga."

Tenko obliged, quickly retracting her hands from Angie's shoulders, then looked to Angie again and noted the strange look on her face, "Yonaga...?"

"Wh-Wha... Tenko," Angie seemed to be very dazed for a few moments before she regained her composure, rubbing at her own shoulders where Tenko had grabbed her, "I mean, Chabashira, I mean... Oh, Atua. I'm sorry. Sorry. That was weird of me, wasn't it? I'm sor-"

"Don't apologize," Kokichi said, looking her right in the eyes, "Don't you ever apologize, Yonaga."

Shuichi found that a bit strange. Did Kokichi know something that he didn't? Well, he was going to worry for Angie's sake anyhow, but she already seemed to be returning to a normal state, and it was time to go to her lab.


	38. Daily Life: Day Three (Aria To Himiko)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you believe this thing is 50,000 words long already, and only one murder's happened so far? It's book length and it's barely even a fifth of the way done ;; if only I could be this motivated to do anything besides danganronpa fanfictions... Well, enjoy!

The entire group went up to the third floor, to Angie's lab, the previous strangeness brushed off. Shuichi didn't blame anyone; It was clear that Angie just wanted to move on and pretend it hadn't happened, and it wasn't so out of the ordinary as soon as he took into consideration the fact that everyone here had nothing waiting in the outside world that couldn't wait three years. That implied that their lives were all far from perfect.

He already knew that about himself, Kaede, Tsumugi, Maki, Miu... And though Korekiyo was dead, he'd known that about him too. So if that was the case, he could assume that everyone here had similar tragedies, and Angie's could very well be something which made her touch-averse. Shuichi wasn't going to press the matter.

Angie's lab was exactly what Shuichi expected it to be, if he was to be honest about it. Her lab had a keyboard piano pushed up against one wall, but aside from that, a church organ took center stage with pipes which reached high to the ceiling. Shuichi understood now why Angie's lab and Maki's were on the same floor; This floor's ceilings were much higher up than the others, so there was sufficient space for the tall items.

Aside from the piano, circling the room were what appeared to be pews made of palm logs. It gave this contrast between religious imagery and the idea of a tropical island, but didn't that description just perfectly suit Angie herself?

"Okay everybody, please feel free to take a seat anywhere but on the organ's bench! I simply can't stand to play with anyone sitting beside me but Atua," Angie explained, and everyone followed her instructions, sitting down and getting comfortable while she moved to sit down at the large church organ. She flexed her fingers, hesitated just for a moment, then began to play.

Shuichi was immediately taken by the sound. Though music had never been his medium, he was an appreciator of the arts, as an artist himself. The notes that Angie played swept everyone in the room up in something that went beyond everyday music and became an otherworldly experience. Shuichi had only heard a few songs in his life that had given him this sort of feeling, and this one was still beyond those in a manner.

It wasn't like Angie was playing complicated music that required someone of her skills to handle it, but what made her the Ultimate Pianist wasn't, and had never been her raw skill. There was a ceiling of piano playing, after all, a point at which nothing was too difficult and no mistakes were ever made, and there were plenty of pros who were more than capable of doing that much. What made Angie the Ultimate Pianist was her ability to create music that created a feeling.

Shuichi could only assume she used that talent to get worshippers swept up in the idea that Atua was watching over and protecting them, as he seemed to be such a benevolent God. Had Shuichi grown up hearing music that embodied Atua the way that this melody Angie had created embodied Himiko, he wouldn't hesitate to be a member of that religion at all.

When the song was finished, Shuichi wanted to voice the way he felt, but he just couldn't find the words to describe it. He didn't need to. In a choked voice, through tears, Tenko found the words and Shuichi could only agree, "Yonaga... That music, it made me feel like Yumeno was still here. That she was here in this room with us, that she was sitting right next to me... Like I could touch her if I just reached out..."

Angie turned around on the bench, looking around to everyone's teary faces, and wiped a few from her own eyes as well before she spoke again, "I wrote this composition... Filled with the desire that Yumeno could come back to us. Filled with all the feelings I had of mourning... We didn't get the chance to talk, really at all, before she died. I wanted her to be here again so I could get to know her because if there's one thing for certain, she was a lovely person..."

"Gosh, Yonaga!" Kokichi exclaimed, sniffling, "That's so sweet... A-After my magic show, you need to share your music with everyone here! I bet you could make everyone so happy... We're all crying right now but it's just because we're overwhelmed with emotion, right?"

Everyone agreed with Kokichi, and Angie brought her hands up to her own face to hide the blush of her embarrassment at being flattered by so many people at once, "Ah, well... Maybe after the magic show, I could hold a small concert, if you think that people would like it... I'll have to consult Atua first though, to make sure it's okay. I have his approval for you guys by default since he encouraged me to be friends with you, but I dunno about the others."

"Well, we'll understand if you're not comfortable with it," Rantaro said, crossing his arms, "But, should you decide that you do want to do it, and Atua allows you, then we'll be glad to assist you in your endeavor. Well, that's a given, isn't it?"

"Of course!" Gonta confirmed, "Gonta always help friends."

"Thank you all," Angie said, and it sounded even more sincere than anything she'd said before. She looked around at everybody, glancing at each face once more before she spoke again, "The thing is, this is the first time that I've actually had people I can trust. Being worshiped is fine, I guess, but it's hard to make friends when everybody makes a big deal outta the fact that you're the mortal vessel for God."

"I can imagine that would put a damper on having normal relationships," Ryoma noted, "But you don't have to worry about that from us. We've seen you as Angie Yonaga since we met you, and that's not about to change."


	39. Daily Life: Day Three (Bedtime)

Once the group had finished in Angie's lab, it was already getting late. Everyone agreed that there was nothing else they really needed to do that night, so they all walked back to the dorm rooms together, only dispersing once they hit the lobby. Shuichi realized, once he returned to his room, that it hadn't even been 48 hours since they'd seen two people die.

Why was it that they were able to return to some fake sense of normalcy so quickly? Well, it wasn't that simple. The mere effect that nobody wanted to go anywhere alone anymore was a notable change, for example. Not to mention, everyone was still grieving in their own ways, but... Shuichi felt as if this was an uncommon reaction to witnessing death.

Maybe it was because of the situation. Somewhere in the back of everybody's minds remained that fear that what Monokuma said about a Killing Game would somehow come to fruition, and then suddenly it was as if they simply couldn't afford to break down. This was an academy built for them, but there were also the aspects of boredom and aimless lack of purpose, so they had plenty of free time _to_ spend breaking down.

It was the nagging fear that kept them on their feet, and from then on, all they had to do was keep themselves distracted. It wasn't the most difficult task in the world, it was barely even hard at all, but it was still important. This fake normalcy was born out of a need not to spend too much time thinking, and as soon as they were all alone again, those feelings came crashing right back down.

When Shuichi was alone, he didn't just find himself freaked out by the state of Korekiyo's corpse, mourning him even for the bastard that he'd turned out to be in his final actions. He didn't just find himself grieving Himiko, a pure soul stolen away from them. He found himself wondering if Kaede was grappling with her lack of chronology any moment she was alone, he wondered if anyone in Kiibo's group would leave her alone long enough for that to set in. She had Tsumugi on her side, though. Shuichi worried about Tsumugi too.

She didn't seem especially torn up about her past, but for some bitterness, but that was still something. That was still a rotten feeling to be saddled with because of somebody else's actions. Shuichi worried about Angie too, based on what he witnessed at dinner. He worried about Maki and her lack of experiencing kindness when she grew up, and he worried about some of the strange things that Kokichi said. Shuichi was full of worry for everybody at the Ultimate Academy.

Was that proof that he'd managed to befriend them this quickly? Did he care about them as friends? He couldn't determine any other reason that he would worry this much, that he would have so much invested in the well-being of each and every one of them. Never in his life had he felt this way toward anybody he'd known less than a _year_ , and even then he had a sense of dissociation from them.

Everyone here was an Ultimate, he reminded himself.

Everyone here was an Ultimate with nothing to lose and nothing to gain.

Were there really this many of them?

Sixteen people who'd been picked as Ultimates after living a life not worth living?

"Hey everybody! Guess what time it is! That's right, night! I'd recommend getting to bed and snatching that precious shuteye if you're not already in your dorms!" The announcement blared over the monitor, and Shuichi looked up at it. Monokuma was sitting in an armchair, "Tomorrow will be another exciting day! And I'm so looking forward to those elections, too. Who will win? Yumeno's Angels, or Kiibo's Krew But With A K?" Suddenly, the screen flashed white for a moment, then Monokuma was back, looking ashamed, "Ah, sorry about that. Technical difficulties. See you in the morning!"

Despite Monokuma interrupting his thoughts, Shuichi was able to put memory to confusion. Right, of course there were sixteen of them. The Ultimate Initiative had come under fire for only inviting those with talents who were already in good positions, and as a PR move, had gone searching for Ultimates in worse condition. Those who hadn't yet found widespread fame or success, but who were nurturing Ultimate Talents nonetheless.

That was how Tsumugi got in despite her plainness and the fact that her research was on a much quieter scale than most aspects of the space program, and how Shuichi got in despite having never even been featured in a gallery. Kaede without solving any cases, too, but that did raise a few more questions for Shuichi. Himiko and Kokichi both had talents that came bundled with widespread success, right? Sports and Magic Shows were both types of performance.

Shuichi had a sinking feeling that if the Ultimate Initiative was still going through with that PR stunt, then it wasn't so much that they were looking for undiscovered talents, but seeking out talented people who had tragedy driving them. To show off that an Ultimate didn't have to be upper-class as the Initiative was being accused of, but that Ultimate Talents could come from any background.

Shuichi racked his brain. If that was the case, as he was somehow very sure it was, did that mean that the entire world knew the type of things that he and his classmates had been through? Or, at least the majority of the world who cared enough to read the Ultimate Initiative's updates? If they wanted to show off that Ultimates could suffer too, then... The tragedies would have to be publicized, right?

Shuichi didn't like that idea. He took a glance at his clock. He'd been lost in thought for ten minutes since the nighttime announcement played. Still, he couldn't stop these ideas from eating at him. If that was the case, he realized, it could explain why they were here. A Killing Game made up of the 'Tragic Ultimates' who were picked as part of a Public Relations stunt...

If the Ultimate Initiative had any enemies with the sort of funds to pull that off, then it would definitely be the perfect revenge. If everyone knew that Shuichi had spent two years homeless, that Kaede witnessed her parents' deaths, that Korekiyo was... Korekiyo; Well, of course it would be expected that people like them wouldn't hesitate to participate in a Killing Game. They were used to seeing death, at least.

Shuichi wondered how many others were in positions like his own and those two's, and how many, like Tsumugi, had completely different tragedy driving them and were just swept up because they were members of the 'Tragic Ultimates'?

He took some deep breaths to calm down, then decided to sleep, though not before setting an alarm for earlier than the morning announcement so that he could make Kokichi's fliers. He'd ask Kaede for her thoughts on the Tragic Ultimates thing when he next saw her. Tomorrow.


	40. Daily Life: Day Four (Morning; POV Swap + Kiibo's Past)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest singular chapter yet ;3 And here's where the talentswap's lore begins to show its ugly face, for that matter...

"Okay everybody!" Monokuma's voice poured out from the monitor, "Wakey-wakey eggs and bakey! It's time to start the day!"

Kaede rubbed her eyes, then got up and went into the bathroom, the weight of exhaustion resting on the back of her neck and across her shoulders. Despite Monokuma's advice to go to sleep during the previous night's announcement, it had been at least another hour before she and the rest of the group made their way back to the dorms. Miu was busy cleaning, of course, but the rest of them had been exploring the school grounds.

Then, that announcement... What was up with that technical difficulty? Kaede felt like the flash of light had some sort of effect on her, but she'd decided against mentioning it to the others. She could talk to Shuichi and Tsumugi about it later; She trusted them more than anybody else here. Since they knew about her trouble with telling time, too, they wouldn't brush her off as crazy when she said what she believed the light had done to her. Well, she hoped so anyway.

For now, though, she just needed to get ready to face the day. She opened the connecting door to the bathroom; Surely, she wouldn't be the only one who was too tired last night to shower then, and for that matter, she wouldn't be the only one late to breakfast. She shut the door behind herself then turned the water on for her shower, pulling her pajamas over her head while she waited for the water to heat up. As soon as she'd stripped she checked the water frequently, so that it wouldn't get hot while she was spacing out.

As soon as the water was warm enough for her to take a comfortable shower, Kaede stepped in. The method she used for showering was a simple one to avoid losing time; Get in, shampoo, conditioner, soap, get out. No time in between for thinking, and she didn't break her routine this morning.

Once she was out of the shower, she got dressed and went outside to the lobby of the dorm room. Kiibo was waiting there, but nobody else was there. She approached him, "Ah, Idabashi. Good morning. Were you waiting on me?"

"Not really," Kiibo answered, "Momota and Maki already went to the dining hall to meet up with Iruma, but I figured I'd wait for everyone else. Shirogane and Tojo are still in their rooms, anyway, so if anything I'm waiting on them."

"Ah, I see," Kaede noted, then looked around to the other doors, "Do you know about Ouma's group?"

"I have to assume that when Monokuma referred to those of us who weren't already in our dorms, that would mean that Ouma's group were already there. I woke up early, and I saw most of them leave for the dining hall. Well, except for Ouma himself, and Saihara, but I can just assume they woke up earlier than I did and left before I reached the lobby," Kiibo answered, "Why? Do you need to talk to Saihara about something again?"

"Well, sort of," Kaede admitted, pressing her fingers together, trying to ignore the sudden worry she felt at the uncertainty in Shuichi's location, "Him and Shirogane, actually. We started a book club, so I wanted to see if he'd like to have another meeting this afternoon," She'd keep up the lie, same as Tsumugi and Shuichi, to keep Shuichi's secret. Book Club was the eventual goal of their study sessions anyway, so she didn't feel too bad about saying that.

"That's very nice! And a very good idea," Kiibo praised her with a bright smile, "I'm afraid that I'm too busy, but don't you think Maki might like to join? Every time I see her it seems that she's reading one of those books from your lab."

"I'd love for her to join," Kaede said, "But also, it's really nice having it be just the three of us... So maybe when we start the next book? I'll make sure it's okay with the others, and if it is, then I'll invite her for the next one that we start reading. It would be kind of hard to join a book club that's already a part of the way through, after all."

"Good point," Kiibo agreed, "Maki is trying so very hard to understand and integrate into human society and social patterns, so it may not be a good idea to invite her into a group which may inadvertently leave her feeling like an outsider. I do think that is the best course of action... You're very compassionate, Akamatsu."

"Well, I try my best," Kaede gave a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of her neck.

"You know, Akamatsu..." Kiibo started, turning to look her in the eyes, "You're not only good at what you do, but very functional and kind to others. It's a little hard to believe that you've been lumped among the Tragic Ultimates."

"A-Ah!" Kaede was taken aback by that statement, then collected herself and continued, "You mean, Idabashi, you remembered about that too...?"

"I did, last night. We were all together then, but I didn't want to bring it up in front of everybody for fear they'd think I was crazy. I have decided to trust you," Kiibo explained.

"Well," Kaede hesitated, "Thank you. I'm not about to tell you why I definitely fit into that category, though. It's something that's very personal and hard for me to talk about, and I'd rather not start the day off by crying. I have to say, though, you seem more the type who shouldn't be counted as a Tragic Ultimate."

"Me?" Kiibo asked, then chuckled as he continued, "Tojo's the only one that I've told about my past. She's the first one here who I trusted not to use the information against me, and I suppose... That's why I couldn't turn my back on her. It isn't that her life has more value than Yumeno's did. I couldn't possibly make that type of claim, but. We trust each other. I couldn't just let her die, even at the cost of someone else's life," He sighed, "And yet, it was Ouma's idea that kept us from needing to argue their lives against each other. I dare call myself Ultimate Supreme Leader?"

"Hey," Kaede reached out toward him, but didn't touch him. She'd witnessed the interaction between Tenko and Angie at dinner, and didn't want to be presumptious that Kiibo was okay with being touched and end up in that same situation, "You're just fine, Idabashi. We all trust you, that's why we're with you!"

"If you trust me... The least I can do is trust you back," Kiibo said, holding both hands to his chest, "Ah, the thing is, Akamatsu... I am deserving of being called one of the sixteen Tragic Ultimates. I've been raised my entire life with leadership in mind. Groomed to be the perfect future prime minister, because... There was never any doubt that once I was old enough, the position would be mine. My father's always seen me as a means to that end. The Ultimate Initiative understood as well. I am the Ultimate Supreme Leader, because once I hold the office of Prime Minister, an entirely different political group will have control of Japan. I am merely one piece in a conspiracy."

"Idabashi..." Kaede gasped.

"Keeping in mind," Kiibo continued, raising a finger, "That although I, as I currently am, am just a puppet-in-training for this group that's been operating in the shadows for nearly a century... That doesn't change my talent. Even if their plan goes through and the entire nation prostrates themselves before me as their Supreme Leader, I will utilize that talent to make a better and brighter future for everyone."

Kaede nodded, clasping her hands together, "I don't blame you, Idabashi! But, this conspiracy... Could you mean, that group?"

"That group?" Kiibo asked, blinking at Kaede, "Do you know which group I'm referring to?"

Kaede paused. Wait, hadn't Kokichi asked her about a group? She'd been clueless on the existence of any group he could be referring to then... But it seemed that one other memory had come along with remembering the existence of 'Tragic Ultimates'. She would have to ask Kokichi if he'd actually known about this from the beginning, "The Future Foundation."

"Yes, that's right," Kiibo said, "So, you know about it... It was created more than a century ago for the purpose of rebuilding the world after it was almost brought to its knees by a terrible, horrific event... Though, documentation of the actual event is scarce, and I can't help but feel like the Future Foundation isn't quite looking out for the world's best interests these days. That's why I'll change things. From the inside."

"Yeah," Kaede gave an awkward smile, "If I'm remembering correctly, wasn't the Future Foundation responsible for all sorts of small-scale terror attacks...?"

"All supposedly in the name of the greater good, I assure you," Kiibo said, "Which is no excuse, obviously. The Ultimate Initiative used to be connected to them, but cut off ties when they started becoming corrupt and power-hungry... I have to admit, if not for the fact that I am here among you, I'd say it was the Foundation which placed us in this academy and asked that we participate in a killing game."

"Ah." Kirumi's voice floated out as she stepped away from the door to her room, "Idabashi. You've decided to trust Akamatsu with your secret?"

"Yes, because she trusts me," Kiibo said, "And because she's the Ultimate Detective, it's probably best if she has all cards on the table, right? It's important that Akamatsu knows the Future Foundation is a possible suspect, but for the fact that they have too much invested in me to put me in danger like this."

"I understand," Kirumi said, holding a finger to her own forehead, "But, uh... Why are you talking like Akamatsu knows who the Future Foundation even are?"


	41. Daily Life: Day Four (Flashback Light)

�"B-Because she does!" Kiibo exclaimed, shocked at Kirumi's confusion, "Didn't everybody remember it, last night?"

"Last night?" Kirumi asked, holding a finger to her own lips, "Uh, the only thing I remembered last night was that we were all selected as part of a PR Stunt known as the 'Tragic Ultimates'... I mean, that makes sense. But I don't know any more about the Future Foundation than what you told me, Idabashi."

"That's weird," Kiibo noted, bringing a hand up to hold his own chin, furrowing his brow, "Ah, maybe one of the others will be able to explain? Once Shirogane joins us, we can go to the dining hall and ask around."

"Yes, I agree," Kirumi said, then paused before she looked to Kaede, "I... Understand it's important for you to have all the cards on the table, Akamatsu, but I'm afraid that the reason I was chosen as a Tragic Ultimate would be better off following me to my grave than being told to anybody. Even you."

"I understand," Kaede offered a smile, "We don't need to know everything about each other. Especially not the bits that we'd rather forget, ourselves. Some secrets are meant for just one person. Some are meant for two, and some are meant for three. Some secrets are better off being shared with everybody. It's all different, nobody will hold keeping a secret against you."

"Of course," Kiibo agreed, "Nobody would ever pressure you to explain the reason you're a Tragic Ultimate. If you'd prefer to carry that burden alone for the rest of your life, if you'd prefer nobody else ever knew, we can't fault you for that. You do what's best for your own mental health."

"Good morning, everyone," Tsumugi called out as she approached, looking around, "Well, the three of you anyhow... Ah, where are all the others?"

"Hm?" Kirumi turned to her, then blinked a few times, "Ah, I think that Maki and Momota went on ahead... Now that you're here, we can get going."

Tsumugi gave a small nod, then started walking toward the door, "Well, if that's the case, come on then. I'm starving..."

Kaede was the first to follow Tsumugi's lead, though Kiibo and Kirumi caught up in no time at all. Once reaching the dining hall, she sat down between Maki and Tsumugi. She noted with relief that nobody seemed to be missing from Kokichi's table. Kiibo and Kirumi sat as well, then Kiibo immediately spoke up, addressing the table, "Last night, during the nighttime announcements, did anybody suddenly remember anything strange?"

"Hm?" Maki looked up, then gave a small nod, "Oh, I did, but I assumed it was a software update I received wirelessly. That happens to me pretty often. I remembered that... The sixteen of us were picked because the Ultimate Initiative was being accused of just giving success to successful people, and never helping anyone who could really use the stipend and boost to their resume..."

"Hey, I remembered that too!" Kaito exclaimed, crossing his arms with a grin, "I also remembered that the group who put us here was definitely that extremist fringe group, the Future Foundation-"

"Ahem," Kirumi cleared her throat, loudly.

"What?" Kaito questioned.

"No, Tojo, it's fine," Kiibo held a hand out toward her, "The Future Foundation was exactly as Momota is describing it, and I won't deny that simply because I was born a member. Truth be told..." He lowered his voice to be sure that the other table couldn't hear him, "The Future Foundation is the reason I have the title of Ultimate Supreme Leader. They were planning to get me elected Prime Minister so they could get control of the country... But I fully denounce their methods and their goals."

"I believe you," Kaito decided, flashing Kiibo a thumbs-up, "I mean, if I wasn't gonna trust you, I already would have made that decision. It doesn't matter to me what group you've been associated with, cause I know that's not you."

"Thank you..." Kiibo was immensely relieved to hear this. He then returned to normal volume, "Anyway, are there any gaps in what people remember? Tojo only got the Tragic Ultimates info, not anything about the Future Foundation."

"Same here," Maki said, raising her hand halfway up, next to her cheek, "All I know about this Foundation is what I've just heard from you guys."

"What exactly are you talking about...?" Miu asked as she set a plate of scrambled eggs down. There was already toast, jam, and sausage on the table, but she hadn't quite finished preparing breakfast yet, "Sorry for overhearing, but I... Didn't remember anything new."  
"That's right, you weren't with us, Iruma..." Kiibo noted, "When the nighttime announcement happened, were you somewhere you could see the monitor?"

"No," Miu answered, shaking her head, "I could only hear the announcement. Does this have something to do with those technical difficulties that Monokuma mentioned?"

"Upupu!" Monokuma's voice filled the room as it dropped down from the ceiling, "There you go, you figured it out! I was hoping I wouldn't have to explain, but," It raised its voice, "Attention, everybody! During last night's nighttime announcement, you may have noticed a flash of bright white light, after which you suddenly remembered the story of the 'Tragic Ultimates', and some of you may have also recalled information on something called the Future Foundation..."

"So," Monokuma continued, "The explanation for that... The truth is, when you all came here, some of your memories got a bit... Lost. Nothing about the cores of yourselves or your personalities, of course, but some knowledge about the outside world. I figured, big deal, I can just work on making a big Flashback Light to return those memories to you and I'd be finished making them by the time you graduated. I just... Accidentally used it last night. I was still working on it, so some of you got more memories than others, and it wasn't everything I was planning to show you either... Upu... I really screwed this one up."

"Well," Kokichi called out to Monokuma, "How soon can you fill in at least the Future Foundation stuff for the people who didn't get it, huh? This is stressing me out! Saihara too!"

"Upu?" Monokuma asked, then approached Kokichi's table, "Well, everyone else who's missing any of the memories I've already handed out will be getting them by tonight, but not you, Ouma. Don't think I didn't notice the rule you broke! It's not a big rule, so I can't kill you for it, but I can punish you by withholding this memory!"

"Aw, darn," Kokichi frowned, then looked to his friends, "You'll just have to tell me everything you can, I guess. It still won't be the same as knowing for real..."

"Thanks for the information, Monokuma," Kiibo spoke up again, "Now could you please let us eat in peace?"

"Ugh, you guys still don't like me? Well, I guess I deserve it. First that Killing Game bullshit, and now this Flashback Light I messed up on? I do deserve your hatred..." The bear almost sounded sincerely dejected as it sulked out of the dining hall.


	42. Daily Life: Day Four (POV Swap + Maki asks for help)

"Ouma..." Shuichi looked to Kokichi, narrowing his eyes, "What did Monokuma mean by that? The _rule you broke_?"

"Huh?" Kokichi asked, then waved it off, "Oh, Monokuma said it wasn't a big rule anyway! If you really wanna know, though, I'll show you later, Saihara! How about that?"

"Well, okay," Shuichi shrugged, looking around the dining hall, "Anyway," He reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of seven papers, "This morning, I made those fliers for your magic show, Ouma. Do you want me to go over to the other table and hand them out?"

"Oh, thanks Saihara!" Kokichi snatched the papers, looking at them, and a grin spread over his face, "These are the best! You're the best! I'll hand them out right now! Come with me!" Kokichi stood up and grabbed Shuichi's wrist, dragging him along to the table of 'Kiibo's Krew'. He leaned between Kaede and Maki, "Hey everybody! I have something to give you all!"

"Is it something good?" Kirumi asked, "Or are you handing out hand buzzers?"

"Hand buzzers?" Kokichi asked, his voice carrying an air of the pathetic, "Hey, I'm a magician, not a clown! I don't do things like that," He reached into his sleeve and produced a bouquet of fabric flowers, somehow, "My flowers don't squirt water or anything... It's in bad form! Magicians deceive you into thinking bad things then reveal it to be good, not the other way around!"

"Anyway," Shuichi stepped in, tapping Kokichi's arm. Kokichi backed off and distributed the papers as if he were dealing cards, while Shuichi explained, "We've been working hard to put together a magic show. We'd all really love it if everybody could come and see it. I know some of you might not be fond of us, but I think everyone here could enjoy a show."

"I'll definitely be there!" Kaede said, then elbowed Tsumugi and gave her a smile, and she nodded as well in agreement.

"I will attend," Maki decided, then stood up, "Oh, I just remembered something I need to do. Momota, come with me... I figure someone should come along," She then approached the other table and tapped Rantaro on the shoulder, "Amami, I need you to perform some modifications, please. Momota will come too, if he won't distract you..."

"Why exactly am I-" Kaito started to question, only for Maki to step on his foot, shutting him up.

"Oh, yeah, sure thing. I can do that. Momota won't be a distraction," Rantaro said, standing up, "I've already eaten enough, so you want to go now, right?"

"Yes, if you wouldn't mind," Maki nodded, "I would prefer to get it done before I forget about it again. It's somewhat important. Ah... I'll explain once we get to your lab, anyway."

With that, the three of them made their ways out of the Dining Hall and toward the stairs down to the basement. Shuichi turned his attention back to the table he was actually standing at, eyeing the ones who hadn't yet agreed. Kirumi and Kiibo, with Miu standing behind them. Miu was the first one to speak again, "I mean, Hell! Of course I'll go! One of my masters is asking me to, after all. There's no way that I could refuse~!"

"We'll go too," Kirumi said, poking at Kiibo's cheek, "It will be fun, won't it, Idabashi?" She then turned to look at Kokichi and Shuichi, "Besides, we don't dislike you. I don't have hard feelings, not even against you, Ouma. Or Chabashira. As much as it frightens me that I could have died... Well, if it had come down to a vote, I wouldn't have voted to save myself. So I can't feel angry about anybody siding against me."

"Similarly," Kiibo said, "I was acting selfishly when I took a stance during the trial at all. I feel ashamed to continue called myself the Ultimate Leader, when it was you who made certain we wouldn't need to fight over our friends' lives, Ouma. So, it would be hypocritical if I continued to hold ill will towards you... And I do not fault Chabashira for her opinion, either."

"Thanks, Idabashi," Kokichi laughed a bit, then tapped the poster, "In that case, I'll see you at the show! Day after tomorrow, just after breakfast. Whenever everyone's done eating and can get to the gym, like it says there. That's so nobody has to rush to arrive for an actual set time. Don't you think that's a smart way to schedule something?"

"Actually, it's an idiotic method of scheduling, from a technical standpoint, but at this academy it makes perfect sense. There are clocks, but it's easier to base our sense of timing on other events than to try and make a regular schedule out of it. For all we know, time could be completely different here than we're used to, right?"

"What do you mean?" Shuichi asked, fidgeting with the strap on his bag.

"Well, we generally go to sleep whenever Monokuma says we should. And none of our phones came with us," Kirumi supported Kiibo's theory, "Lucky for me, it seems that all of my mobile game accounts were ported onto the Monopad... But the point is, Akamatsu's the only one who wore a watch, and she already told us that it's broken and runs slow."

"Mhm," Kaede agreed, pointing to her own watch. Shuichi remembered her telling him how that was the only method of telling time she'd had for an entire year, but he didn't think she'd given that bit of information to anybody but him and Tsumugi.

"Right," Kiibo picked the theory back up, "So for all we know, we're actually operating on eighteen hour days. None of these clocks have a second hand, so minutes could be going faster without us even reali-"

"Nice conspiracy theory," Kokichi cut him off, holding one finger against his own cheek with an innocent look on her face, "But, you're wrong. These clocks are definitely telling the correct time! That's not a lie, either. You see," His innocent look morphed into a smirk as he tapped his own forehead, "You really think... The Ultimate Magician wouldn't know how to tell how much time is passing without a tool? A lot of tricks require _perfect_ timing."

"That's a good point," Tsumugi spoke up, "But, how do we know they don't cheat the clocks while we're asleep?"

"Ah, that's because..." Kokichi blinked a few times, then shrugged, "I didn't sleep last night."

"...What!?" Kaede questioned, standing up, "But, I thought that your group were the first ones back to the dorms!"

"The dorms have televisions," Kokichi said, "I went and got a bunch of DVDs from the AV room after I got a shower and messed around with my Monopad for about an hour, so I watched those. Beats just having insomnia," He explained, "Truth be told, I've barely got any sleep since we got here," He clicked his tongue, "Ah, anyway. I grabbed Precious Wolf Children, Your Name... And the AV room had dubbed versions of Now You See Me, The Hobbit, Thor, You've Got Mail... A bunch more too, but those are the ones I grabbed. If you want to watch any of those, just let me know and I'll get them back to you."

"Huh, so those televisions have DVD players..." Kaede noted, then looked to Kokichi again, "I hadn't actually investigated the one in my room. Is that all they can do?"

Kokichi dropped his hands to his sides, "Well, they can't get any channels, if that's what you're wondering. No internet connectivity, either. So, basically, they can do anything a normal TV can, except tell us anything at all about the outside world."

"That makes perfect sense, though!" Miu chimed in, "We might get more depressed if we knew anything about the outside world after all~! Being in here for three years, it's the perfect escape from all that awful stuff outside..." She paused, then slammed her hands down on the table. For the Ultimate Maid, she was hardly graceful, "Do these televisions have game systems?"

"Not hooked up," Kokichi said, "But in the drawers under the entertainment center, there's a few. Why?"

"Ahhh~" Miu clutched her own cheeks, "That's terrible!" She didn't sound upset, "If anybody decided to use any of those consoles, please, let me know. You'll have to let me in your room to clean up, because an ill-kept game console can attract roaches, they think the nice warm console is the perfect hotel..."

"Well, that won't happen," Shuichi said, "Momota, Maki, and I already determined the only insects in the whole of this academy are the ones in Momota's lab."

"Oh," Miu sounded a bit disappointed, "Well, that's good. But don't hesitate to invite me back to your rooms anyway... T-To clean, of course..."


	43. Daily Life: Day Four (Sleeping Together)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, remember back in chapter 20 when Ouma woke Saihara up from his breakdown? My friend drew it. Enjoy :3c

As soon as breakfast was actually finished, Kokichi grabbed Shuichi by the arm to drag him along out of the building. Shuichi didn't protest at all, just following his friend along. As soon as they were outside, Kokichi didn't stop moving, but he spoke, "Case you couldn't already tell, I'm gonna show you about the small rule I broke."

"Should I be scared that you have to show me and can't just tell me about it?" Shuichi asked.

"Scared? No way!" Kokichi assured him with a grin, "Why would I ever do anything to scare you, Saihara? At least, I wouldn't do it on purpose. Besides, it seriously isn't a big rule!"

"It's just that everything I can think of is pretty bad," Shuichi said.

Kokichi rolled his eyes as he continued walking in the direction of the dorms, "Well, just come on, okay? You'll find out soon enough. In a few minutes, even."

Shuichi decided to just go along with it. What was the worst that could happen? Well, technically, Kokichi could murder him. But, Shuichi didn't think that he'd do that. And, well, if Kokichi really did want to kill Shuichi for whatever reason, then it wasn't as if Shuichi could really do anything to stop him, now was it?

Kokichi let go of Shuichi's arm once reaching the door for his dorm room to pull out his key from the pocket in his pants. He opened the door, then used the palm of one hand to push Shuichi in before following. Shuichi didn't notice anything strange about the room at first, until he glanced at the coffee table, and he was more confused than anything else when he asked, "Ouma? What's with the pile of swords?"

"Yes!" Kokichi answered. That was not an answer.

"...What?" Shuichi asked, now just more confused.

"I mean..." Kokichi clarified, "That's the small rule that I broke. I got the swords from Shinguji's Ultimate Lab. See, that's why it's a small rule, and isn't actually on the list of rules punishable by death... They're meant to be 'inaccessible'. So we aren't supposed to be able to get inside them, but it's not like there's an actual rule against managing to get in. So I did. And I took these swords."

"Er," Shuichi didn't have anything to say about that except more questions, "How and why, Ouma...?"

"Why? These are super cool historical replica swords, way better than the dumb basic ones that came with my sword box trick. How? I'm the Ultimate Magician! Part of being able to escape from anything also means that if I put my mind to it, I can get inside anything too~"

Shuichi looked at the swords again, then back to Kokichi, "I feel like the sleep deprivation is getting to you. Why haven't you been sleeping anyway?"

"Well, that's kind of embarrassing," Kokichi sat down on his bed, and Shuichi made the mistake of standing near him. Kokichi reached out and dragged Shuichi to lie down next to him, "Guess I can tell you, though, Saihara. After all, I've seen you cry."

"A-Ah..." Shuichi had no idea what to say.

"Mm?" Kokichi realized what Shuichi was getting flustered over, then smirked and turned onto his side, wrapping his arms around Shuichi's chest to bury his face in his sweater, "Hah, don't get the wrong idea, Saihara~! Truth is, I just can't really fall asleep without anybody near me... I hate to be alone. So," He chuckled a bit, "Could you take a nap with me?"

"Ouma..." Shuichi mumbled, trailing off at the end of the singular word. He only hesitated for a second before he moved his arms, lacing his fingers behind the back of Kokichi's head with his elbows against Kokichi's shoulderblades, "Ah, well... Okay."

"Thanks..." Kokichi's voice was faint, and Shuichi could tell from the pattern of his breathing that he'd fallen sound asleep in mere moments. It took Shuichi a bit longer, but with nothing better to do, he slipped into sleep as well.

Shuichi didn't wake up again until there was a knock on the door; Kokichi's door. He stirred, but Kokichi moved quicker, standing up and going to the door before the second set of knocks was complete. He cracked the door just a bit, and Shuichi could hear both sides of the conversation from where he was, having stood up already.

"Hey, this might make me sound like a total idiot," Kaito's voice was audible, "But is Saihara here?"

"Huh?" Kokichi asked, "Why would you come to _my_ dorm room looking for _Saihara_?"

"Told you it might make me sound dumb," Kaito groaned, "Look, Akamatsu told me to find Saihara and ask if he was coming to her book club. And I figured, you guys spent all of yesterday together, right? So maybe, he'd be here. It was just a kind of shitty theor-"

"Well, I mean, he _is_ here," Kokichi said with a shrug, "We were watching Thor," He pointed to the TV, "Then I think we fell asleep, since neither of us got enough sleep last night. I just thought it was kinda weird you'd think he would be here. Saihara!" Kokichi turned and called out to him, "Akanancy Kaedrew is looking for you."

"That's... A terrible nickname," Shuichi noted as he glanced at the clock. Ten past two. Oops. He made his way toward the door, "Hey, Momota. Sorry she had to send you to get me..."

"Dude, it's no problem, I really don't mind. Let's not keep Akamatsu and Shirogane waiting any longer though, right?" Kaito gestured for Shuichi to follow, and he did so, "I'm sure she'll get a kick outta why you were late!"

"Probably," Shuichi gave a nervous chuckle as he noted Kokichi closed the door and retreated back into his room as soon as Shuichi was out in the hallway, "Still, I feel like a jerk for keeping her waiting. Especially since..."

"Since the kneejerk reaction to losing track of anyone for any amount of time is to assume that they're dead, here?" Kaito asked, then raised an arm to scratch the back of his neck, "Ah, well, that's a personal problem of Akamatsu's. I think everyone's overreacting to this stuff, kind of. Well, obviously it's tragic what happened, but if someone got murdered at a normal sized high school, then the murderer got arrested, then there's no reason to be afraid anymore..."

"I guess you have a point," Shuichi said with a shrug.

"Hey, Saihara?" Kaito asked, stopping where he stood, "What rule did Ouma break?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also uh I need some advice nyall, in light of the fact that you can pretty much tell now what one of the ships in this thing is should I go ahead and add SaiOuma to the relationship tags or leave it as is?


	44. Daily Life: Day Four (Kaito brings Shuichi to Book Club)

"What makes you think I know what rule he broke, Momota?" Shuichi asked, also freezing in his tracks despite having somewhere to be.

"Because he may be a good liar, but you're a shitty one," Kaito answered, rolling his shoulders, "I could tell from the moment I met you! You can't possibly think that I'm oblivious to social things like that just because my specialty is insects. So, come on, spit it out. You didn't go to his room to watch a movie, you went there to find out what rule he broke. Monokuma said it in front of everybody, you know."

Shuichi hesitated. Kokichi obviously wanted to keep the rule he broke between the two of them, and this was a slippery slope to keep the rest of his visit a secret. It had been Kokichi finally showing signs of belonging among the Tragic Ultimates, and Shuichi wasn't about to betray his trust. Giving away one secret could give way to another, so he answered, "Okay, I do know the rule. It's a small rule, though. Any one of us could have broken it too. I think Monokuma just used a slight bit of misbehavior as an excuse to avoid giving him the rest of the flashback light."

"Well, if you're sure," Kaito said, continuing to walk, "That worries me, though. Enforcing rules in that sort of way, punishing people for something that they hadn't yet been told they shouldn't do? That means it's not long before Monokuma starts breaking its own big rules. Well, assuming that it's programmed to actually act like a human, but... It seems about as advanced as Maki does, just with less moving parts, and she's as human as they come."

Shuichi gave a slow nod, furrowing his brow, "Momota, what do you mean? That seems like an irrational behavior for a human to have, too..."

"Heh," Kaito gave a bitter chuckle, "Yeah, certainly sounds it when you look at it from a third person perspective, huh? But when you've been right up in it, then you know, it's pretty goddamn terrifying..."

"Ah, Momota," Shuichi reached a hand out for Kaito's shoulder, "Are you saying..."

Kaito shrugged, "Look, Saihara. I saw those workbooks Akamatsu had in her lab. Didn't mean to, but I did. Now, I don't want to jump to any conclusions on how or why, but you dropped out in middle school, didn't you? So, since I know that, it's probably fair that you know what qualified _me_ as a Tragic Ultimate too, right?"

"You don't have to tell me," Shuichi said with a shake of his head, "Really, if you'd rather not talk about it, then..."

"Maki knows," Kaito stuffed his hands into his pockets after getting inside the school building, "We been hanging out a lot, since the trial. We're friends cause you said we should be, Saihara. You were friends with me and friends with her before we were friends with each other, so I shoulda told you first. It's a stain on my pride as a man, and my honor as a friend."

"I really don't think so," Shuichi said.

Kaito looked to him, then smiled, "You're such a goddamn softie, Saihara. I like that about you. You've got a good head on your shoulders and a good heart in your chest," His smile turned to a grin as he poked Saihara in the chest, then fell as he continued, "In any case... The reason I ended up as a Tragic Ultimate is 'cause about half a year before they came around to give me the papers... So, a little under two years before we showed up here, I was relocated to my grandparents' custody by a child welfare group."

"A child welfare group?" Shuichi asked, adjusting his bag, "So does that mean that your home life was bad?"

"That's why I got into bugs, actually," Kaito said with a nod, "I hated being at home so much, that I ended up throwing myself into an outdoor hobby... Sometimes, I'd even end up sleeping out in the woods. So," He turned and put his hands on Shuichi's shoulders, "Whatever reason you couldn't continue school, I'm on your side. I know how hopeless it can feel, sometimes, to be in a certain situation. Now, go get tutored by the cute girls!" Kaito pushed Shuichi at the door to Kaede's lab, "I say, as if it isn't pretty clear you don't swing that way."

"H-Hey," Shuichi took a half second to protest, but then rolled his eyes and opened the door, stepping into Kaede's lab and closing the door behind himself, "Akamatsu, Shirogane... Sorry I was late. I sort of fell asleep and forgot to set an alarm."

"Oh, you did?" Kaede asked, motioning for him to come sit down, "Heh, no worries. I'm glad you're at least getting enough rest, unlike Ouma... I hope he's okay," She glanced around the room, "Hm, well, remember how apparently there wasn't any sort of dramamine available when Tojo and Yumeno were sick...? I wonder if an infirmary would be opening up sometime soon. Then we might be able to at _least_ get Ouma some nyquil to help with his insomnia."

"Yeah," Shuichi didn't even hesitate in his decision that just agreeing with Kaede would be the best option, "Either that, or he has to get exhausted enough that nothing could possibly keep him awake."

Tsumugi raised her hand in the air slightly, "That might not work. Ah, he might _really_ need some sleeping pills, or even some general anesthesia, I mean. There's a syndrome... It actually has a tendency to impact astronauts who've arrived back to Earth after being in orbit for a while, in which the body is actually not able to flip the switch to go to sleep. It used to be a syndrome that would usually result in a slow and kind of torturous death, but modern medicine can treat it-"

"Shirogane," Kaede groaned, giving her the side-eye, "I'd really prefer not hearing about how Ouma might _die a slow and kind of torturous death_ , please."

Shuichi spoke up, "That's definitely not it! I dunno how much rest he was actually able to get out of it, but Ouma definitely is able to fall asleep. We both nodded off while trying to watch a movie, since I didn't get enough sleep last night either. He was asleep first, though."

Tsumugi lowered her hand, "Ah, that's good. I was beginning to get concerned for him. He's kind of an oddball, isn't he?"

"Aren't we all?" Kaede asked with a slight shrug, then pointed at the workbook in front of herself, "Saihara, let's get started. You made really great progress yesterday! We'll be able to have a book club for real in no time."


	45. Daily Life: Day Four (Monokuma's Impatience)

When dinnertime rolled around, Shuichi realized just how much of the day he'd lost to napping. Well, he realized it, then realized immediately after that he didn't care very much. It wasn't like there was anything he was trying to get done, so whatever.

Dinner was great, as usual, and filled with general small talk from both tables. As soon as the first person was finished eating (it happened to be Tenko) Monokuma made another appearance in the dining room, "Hey everyone! I hope you're all looking forward to Ouma's magic show! I know I am... Actually, I'm so excited that I just can't wait another day. Why don't we move it to tomorrow morning?"

"Why should we go to all the trouble of getting things set up tonight, when we could have all day tomorrow, just cause you're impatient?" Tenko questioned, glaring at the bear, "Seriously, you're such a pain..."

"So that's what I am to you guys? Just a nuisance...?" Monokuma asked, holding both paws to its face, but then a malicious glint appeared in its eyes, "That won't do. I'm still your headmaster, and even though I've made some mistakes, you're my students. You need to learn to respect me! So how about this. Push the magic show forward to tomorrow morning, or else I'll blow up the school!"

"...W-What!?" Miu exclaimed, standing up and approaching the bear, "What the Hell are you on about?? There's no way I'll allow you to treat my masters this way!"

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice but to allow me to do it! Attacking me is punishable by death, remember? And that wouldn't change anything. The only option is to comply or die. You can pretend as much as you want, Iruma, but the only real Master here is me!"

"How dare you..." Miu sneered, "I do _not_ serve you!"

"Hey, it's okay," Kokichi spoke up, "I can do it in the morning, okay? Let's just not start a conflict. I don't need any more help to get set up, if I stay up all night again. I probably wouldn't be getting any sleep anyway, might as well do something useful."

"Hey!" Kaito shouted from the other table, "I can't just let you give up like that! The bear's bluffing, for sure. It couldn't possibly just kill us all over something so trivial. Be a man and stand your ground, Ouma!"

Kokichi looked over to Kaito, then back to Monokuma, "The magic show will be in the morning. I know how to tell when a human is lying, but a robot bear? I can't possibly read something like that. Why _risk_ killing us all when it's something so trivial? I'm the only one who needs to work any harder for this. It will be done."

"Great! I look forward to tomorrow!" Monokuma explained, then left the scene again. Kaito was glaring at Kokichi, frustrated that he'd given in so easily, but he'd get over himself soon enough.

"Hey," Shuichi leaned closer to Kokichi, "I'll help you get set up, okay? There's no way that I'm going to let you have another sleepless night as long as I'm around."

"I'll help too!" Tenko volunteered, leaning across the table to reach her hands toward Kokichi, "I'm not mad at you for giving in to that bear's demands or anything. If I was in your position, then I wouldn't wanna risk our lives either. Better to be on the safe side," Tenko looked around the rest of the table, "I mean, if we all work on it, we could get most of the stuff into the gym before it closes for the night at least. I dunno what else needs to get done."

"If you guys work on moving things, I could probably get all of my other prep done too..." Kokichi said with a shrug, "But, only if you all want to."

"Of course we do," Rantaro said with a smirk, "There's seven of us, total! So that's plenty of hands to get everything all set up without you needing to be up late."

"That's great," Kokichi smiled around at his peers, "Really, without help what I would have needed to do was move as much stuff as possible before nighttime, then be trapped in my lab all night to do the rest of the preparations."

"That's right," Angie noted, "Ouma, your lab is adjacent to the gym, so if you were inside of it when the gym became off-limits for the night... Then you wouldn't be able to get out, right? We need to be careful of that when we're helping you, and keep an eye on the time! There's clocks in both rooms, we just have to remember to check them."

"Hey, Ouma," Kokichi looked up to see that Maki was standing by the table, "Uh, is there anything that we can help with, but still be able to enjoy watching the show?" She gestured to her side, where Kaito was approaching as well, "Also, Momota has realized that in a way, agreeing to Monokuma's terms was still a form of upholding your honor

"Actually, the best thing about large-scale magic tricks is that they're designed to be transported without giving the trick away! I'm trying my best to keep the secrets hidden even from the ones who've been helping me with the show from the beginning," Kokichi answered, then looked to Kaito, "Ah, no, you were right. But I am a coward, after all, so I just couldn't take a gamble like that."

"In that case," Maki smiled, tilting her head to the side, "We'd all like to offer our assistance. Chabashira, I know that you don't like us in Idabashi's party very much, but this _is_ a matter of life or death, you know? Assuming Monokuma was serious, Ouma's actually saving us all by putting on this show. The least we can do is help set it up."

"I'd be glad for the help," Kokichi said, folding his hands on the table in front of him, "You know, it's funny. Before I woke up here, I never would have thought that I'd bother doing anything to protect other people!" He laughed, flashing a grin, "I could barely even protect myself, so why would I care about anyone else? When you're running from a monster, you trip the guy next to you so you can get out alive. But something's different with you guys."

"Ouma-" Shuichi started to express his surprise, but found himself cut off.

"Ha! That's a lie, though. I've only known you for a few days, so why would I care that much, huh? It's completely irrational. I can't believe you'd fall for th-" It was Kokichi's turn to get cut off.

"Ouma," Kaede said, smirking down at him, "If that's the case, then why would you agree to Monokuma's clause?"

"To save myself, obviously. I was included in being blown up, you know," Kokichi was smiling, but his eyes had a glazed look to them, "Or maybe, my saying that is a lie? I'm not sure if I even know the truth," He lifted one hand and stared at it, "I am a Tragic Ultimate, after all! You have no idea if I even have a heart, for all you know, I could be a coldblooded killer... Or, maybe, I'm just getting way too attached to all of you because I've got some sort of trauma haunting my every step, and even if Monokuma says this is a Killing Game, I feel safe around you? Ah... you don't have a clue what the truth is..."

"Ouma!" Tenko shouted, and he snapped his head up, blinking a few times at her, "Hey, snap out of it! We're all friends here. You don't have to do that. You don't have to tell lies to hide the way that you're feeling, because we all really care about you! And even if you try to scare us off or pretend that you don't, you care about us too!" She slammed her hands down on the table, "I knew that was true... the moment you said you'd help me try that ritual to heal Yumeno's illness! I won't ever let you or anybody else deny it... Okay!?"


	46. Daily Life: Day Four (Maybe The Real Hard Labor Was The Friends We Made Along The Way)

With everybody's help moving things and setting up the gym, Kokichi was able to focus on his own more complex preparations, and they finished setting up before nighttime with half an hour to spare. As everybody was making their way out of the gym, Angie spoke up, "Hey, I wonder... Monokuma was saying how it did want us to become friends. Maybe it pushed the magic show up so that we'd all band together to make sure it happened"

"I think you're giving it a little too much credit," Kaede said with a nervous smile, "I still don't trust it. I mean, it had no way of knowing that we'd all decide to help Ouma, and I'm pretty sure it knew about Ouma's insomnia too. I think it's more likely Monokuma wanted to overwork Ouma even more so he'd get sleep deprived... And do something he'd regret, or become an easy target."

"What? Come on, Akamatsu! Why would Monokuma wanna do something that convoluted if it isn't even encouraging us to participate in the Killing Game anymore?" Kokichi asked.

Kaede hesitated a moment, then decided to tell the truth behind her theory, "You broke a rule. Sure, it said that it was going to let you off with a light punishment, but ... Really, do you believe it? It probably has some sort of grudge against you now, and that's why it wanted to make you stress out," She sounded sad, but became more upbeat with her final statement, "But Monokuma can't beat us! Even though we're different groups, we are all friends. Just, friends with different opinions on leadership. It's not like you or Idabashi believes anything particularly abhorrent... He even regrets voting against Yumeno being cured. So we can get along."

"...You're right, Akamatsu," Tenko said, though her voice was strained, "It makes me feel bad, not to hate you all. I feel like I'm dishonoring Himiko by feeling like I want to forgive you for siding against her! But, if I think about it... She would probably want me to get along with all of you, even if I don't want to spend time with you as much as I do with the friends I've chosen."

"...Thank you," Kirumi said, and that was her only response before she sped up her pace walking toward the dorm buildings. Kiibo walked faster as well, to keep up with her, and everyone in turn adjusted their walking speed and ended up dispersing the large group into smaller ones. Shuichi matched his pace to Kokichi's, and Rantaro joined him.

"Sorry I wasn't able to make you anything more interesting, Ouma," Rantaro said, "I made the confetti you asked for. I had bigger plans, but I was going to do that tomorrow since I had to spend a little while today making some modifications to Maki."

"Modifications to Maki?" Shuichi asked, "Oh, yeah, she went to ask you about that while Ouma and I were handing out fliers, right? What did she need?"

Rantaro brought a hand up to his chin, thinking, "Well, I can trust the two of you not to hold it against her, anyway. She gets wireless software updates, and a few came through that she wanted me to disable. There was one that was an 'intelligence package', and she'd prefer to keep learning naturally. So, I disabled those updates, and installed a switch to turn her wireless on or off, as well as a 'selective download' process so she doesn't need to get updates at random."

"Oh, that makes sense," Shuichi said, "That was very kind of you, to do it for her."

Rantaro shrugged, "Really? I didn't really think it was kind, since the way I saw it, there was no option for me to refuse her request. I told her to come for me for help if she ever needed it, and she did. I wouldn't go back on my word. Besides, you never know what kind of updates could get sent to her. What if the scientists who made her gave her a streaming function, and suddenly they could see everything that's happening here?"

"Wouldn't... They come to get us out of here?" Shuichi asked.

"That's exactly why we wouldn't want that to happen, right? None of us _want_ to go to the outside world. And, they'd probably just take Maki back to the facility she was built in for that matter, and throw us all back to the lives we had before. I... I can't let that happen. When we graduate in three years, we'll find ways to live better lives. Live the lives we could have had, if not for other people."

"Amami," Kokichi asked, clasping his hands behind his back and leaning forward a bit as he pondered, "I have two questions for you. You can answer both, or either, or neither, but I want to ask them. You've talked about your past before, and your sisters, and it seemed like a past that's okay at least. So what makes you a 'Tragic Ultimate'? And, the other question. What are your plans for when we graduate? Cause it sounds to me like you have some."

Rantaro crossed his arms over his chest and stood still with a heavy sigh before he answered, "Well, I don't mind admitting this. The thing is, I don't make residuals on any of my inventions. My father gets everything, seeing as I'm a minor. I should be old enough after graduation, though, that I can get compensated for my inventions... And then, I'll buy a big house for me and all my sisters, and we'll go far away and never see that rotten man again."

"You sound like you got a _whole_ lot of conviction there buddy," Kokichi noted, "So sorry if this is overstepping a boundary or something, but why is it such a big deal that you're able to take all your sisters away from there? Did your dad beat you up on the weekends or something?"

Shuichi had to force an instinctual utterance of 'yikes' at Kokichi's foot in mouth disease down. Luckily, Rantaro didn't seem put off by the flippant attitude towards his potential past trauma.

"Ah, he never laid a hand on me, or any of my brothers. Just the girls... And that's why I need to make a lot of money off of my inventions and get them out of there," Rantaro explained, holding both hands flush to his chest. He was keeping his voice level, but it was clear that was a difficult effort, "I guess I never experienced tragedy myself. But I... I could always hear them, at night. I said that I wanted to talk to the police, or run away, or something, but my sisters always said that wouldn't work out. That they could handle it for a few more years until I was able to afford to get us all out of there."

"That's very mature of them," Kokichi noted, "Sometimes people get so caught up in escaping shitty situations that they just jump right into another one, cause they didn't plan ahead or anything. Out of the frying pan and into the fire... So I think your plan is perfect. You'll graduate just before you're old enough to follow through on it."

Shuichi spoke up too, "Also, Amami, that makes perfect sense for why you're a Tragic Ultimate. Sometimes, knowing that someone you really care about is suffering, or has suffered, is just as traumatizing as being the one to suffer it. That's something I heard once, and I really think it's true."

"...Thank you," Rantaro said.

Once they reached the dorm lobby, Rantaro went to his room, but Shuichi stayed behind and grabbed for Kokichi's wrist. The magician flinched for a moment, but then relaxed and looked up at Shuichi, "What's up, Saihara?"

"Well," Shuichi said, giving Kokichi's wrist a slight squeeze and offering him a smile, "Like I said, I'm not going to let you have a sleepless night while I'm around. I can't just go back to my own room knowing that you won't be able to get a good night's rest. Akamatsu was right that being exhausted could turn out badly..."

"You'd do that?" Kokichi asked, staring back at Shuichi, wide-eyed.

Shuichi shrugged, "Hey, I've definitely slept next to people that I liked a lot less than you. It's no big deal, just let me grab some pajamas and clothes for tomorrow from my own room. I'm not opposed to being a human comfort object."

"G-Geeze, Saihara," Kokichi seemed to be tearing up as he said this, "That's so nice that I'm not even going to ask why you slept next to people you liked even less than somebody like me!"

"Now, don't say that," Shuichi gave a sheepish chuckle, "It's not hard for somebody to fall lower on the scale than you. You're getting up there."


	47. Daily Life: Day Five (Wake Up)

"Upupu! Looks like everybody's already in their rooms to go to sleep! I'll keep this brief, then. See you for the magic show in the morning~!" The nighttime announcement fell on empty ears throughout.

The morning announcement was more of the same, Monokuma keeping things brief and expressing its excitement for Kokichi's magic show. It served as an alarm for Kokichi and Shuichi, though, and so they slowly woke up. Kokichi looked over, then took a deep breath and spoke, "I feel like... Since you're helping me actually get some sleep, I should probably explain why I need such weird help..."

"Hm?" Shuichi asked, stretching his arms above his head, "I don't need to know that. I'm happy to help, even if it is kind of weird. If it's hard to talk about, you don't have to. Everyone's entitled to secrets."

"But, Saihara," Kokichi continued, staring at a far wall, "I want you to know about me. And I want to know about you. It's more than curiosity. I want you to trust me, I want to have your secrets buried deep inside my heart to protect and understand. Everybody needs somebody to understand. Even if they say they don't."

"Okay then," Shuichi said, somehow finding the meaning in Kokichi's words, "I'll go first, and if you decide you'd rather I wasn't the one to understand, then you don't have to tell me, after I tell you mine," He looked to Kokichi, who gave a single nod in understanding, "The truth about me, is I was homeless for a couple of years."

Kokichi moved a bit closer to him, "That explains the sleeping next to people you don't like part, then. Guess you had to do stuff like that when it's cold... It's nice here, isn't it? Nicer than living on the streets, or... Living in a basement."

"Living in a basement? Ouma..." Shuichi stared at him, "The way you said that implies this was not a 'room that happens to be underground' situation, you know."

"That's the point," Kokichi said, leaning back to look up at the ceiling, "Ah, I've always been a real little shit. Can't remember if I ever wasn't in the foster care system. I ended up sticking it out in group homes, cause I was too obnoxious for families to even wanna take me temporarily. I was never really alone. Liked it that way, too. Being surrounded by people is really just great, don't you think?"

Shuichi hesitated, but he gave his response, "Yeah, it is. So, what happened?"

Kokichi clicked his tongue, "Well, I always liked magic tricks, the kinds with playing cards and the sort, but I didn't realize my real talent as the Ultimate Magician till I was ten. A foster family actually decided to take me in, absurd as it may sound," He waved one hand for effect, "The family was great. They didn't do anything wrong, except give me my own room. Ah, I got kinda paranoid about sleeping by myself after what happened cause of that."

"I got _kidnapped_ , and I swear that's not a lie," Kokichi continued, and Shuichi just listened with rapt attention, "Turns out, people do that a lot to foster families who just take in one kid. Foster kids don't mean much to anybody, so it's easy to get away with kidnapping them. There's not about to be some big pushback from the community to get the Tarou family's golden child back~ It just flies under the radar."

"So," Kokichi pressed his hands together as he reached the final part of his story, "Basement, being kept there. That's when I unlocked my potential... by escaping. I escaped the handcuffs, and I escaped the basement, and I escaped the house. It was because I was desperate, but I guess the escape artist ability never went away. So here I am today!" He flashed Shuichi a grin, "An absolute disaster just barely scraping by, and definitely not functioning the way a human should!"

"Wow," Shuichi said, grappling for words, "Uh, now I feel bad for just giving you a one-liner, if I knew you were going to tell me all of that, I would've..."

Kokichi's grin melted into a smile that was a bit more genuine, less sarcastic, "Well, we still have some time before we should get to breakfast."

With that prompting, Shuichi told him the whole story, the way he'd told it to Kaede and Tsumugi. He could trust Kokichi not to tell anybody else about it, he was sure of that. And he knew that Kokichi could trust him with his past, too. It was definitely evident of him being a Tragic Ultimate.

Shuichi cringed again at the thought that the whole world could know these things, the fact that it was very possible all of these tragedies had been broadcast out by the Ultimate Initiative. Chances were that if the goal was to get sympathy, to prove their stunt, any descriptions officially made available wouldn't mince words. Kokichi obviously had no desire to disclose what had happened to him while he was kidnapped, but there was a chance the whole outside world knew the gritty details.

The idea of it made Shuichi angry, angrier than he would usually ever get. He was a gentle young man, after all. He truly had an artist's soul before coming here. Gentle and warm and avoiding real attachments to anybody, but he'd become attached. He'd become attached, and that attachment was leading to anger at the very thought that the people he was growing attached to could have their dirty laundry aired for everyone to see.

That it could have already happened, and it was just a matter of time before they remembered it. Shuichi looked to Kokichi again, and took a deep breath before addressing him, "Hey. You know you're safe here, right? Even if the Killing Game somehow happens, nothing bad will happen to you while you're alive. I trust everybody here not to hurt each other."

Kokichi stared back at him, then nodded, "Yeah, that's right. You're right. That is why I feel safe here... I'm not afraid of death. I'm afraid of what more could happen to me while I'm alive. And I guess that you're right. Nobody here would do anything. Thank you, Saihara. Uh, we should probably go to breakfast."


	48. Daily Life: Day Five (Magic Show)

Breakfast went by quickly. Everyone ate a little bit faster than usual with the promise of the magic show on the horizon, even Kokichi. As much as it was a pain to get it moved up, he was still looking forward to giving a performance. He was the Ultimate Magician, after all. He lived to entertain.

Everybody gathered in the gym, including Monokuma, sitting in chairs that had been moved from the dining hall. Even Miu sat down normally, seeing as she had no perogative against sitting beside her masters during a performance. From a curtain set up to mask all the tricks held 'backstage', though Kokichi was only using the gym's floor, Ryoma emerged. The jacket that Miu had made for him glinted, and he held out his hands to gesture toward the curtain again when Kokichi stepped out.

Everybody clapped at his arrival, and he couldn't help but grin back at them. He and Ryoma didn't waist any time with getting started, putting on the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJH9iFOji_A (<\--- Eyy Kokichi probably did a bunch of tricks but this one might be relevant.)

Kokichi did as well as expected, of course, but it was a bit surprising just how well the quiet and somewhat reclusive Ryoma was able to step into the role of being a magician's assistant. His demeanor didn't become any more pleasant than usual, but he did everything that he was supposed to do, and did it right.

With the show completed, Kokichi stepped forward and bowed, taking the opportunity to fit in one last small trick as a dove flew out of his hat when he took it off as a flourish in his bow. Then he stood back up and smiled, looking around at his audience of peers, "So, uh... What'd you think?"

"That was amazing!" Tenko exclaimed, standing up and pointing both fingers at him, "Like, wow, Ouma! I knew your tricks would be cool, but that's even cooler than I expected you to be able to pull off!"

"I agree," Tsumugi said, also standing from her chair, as did most of the others at slight intervals, "Thank you for putting on this show for us. It was really nice of you. Do you think that you'll do it again in the future? I'd gladly see what else you've got up your sleeve, so to speak."

"Good one, Shirogane!" Monokuma spoke up, and everyone turned to fix it with dirty looks, "Hey, I have good news, students! This will definitely make you like and respect me again! Because you listened to my silly selfish request and had the show sooner, I'm opening up two new labs! Let's see... The Ultimate Astronaut's Lab in the courtyard, and the Ultimate Aikido Master's Lab on the third floor! Why don't you go check those out?"

"Gonta need to help put magic things away!" Gonta said, shaking his head, "Can't just bail on friends to go see super cool personal lab!"

"Sure you can," Tenko told him, clapping a hand against his arm, "Everything's on wheels now anyway, and putting things away always takes less time than setting up. I could handle it all by myself!"

"Well, I obviously need to help clean up my own mess," Kokichi noted, "But I think we could make good time on cleaning up with four people. So, two more, and the rest of you can go do your own things?"

"I'd help, but I really want to see Shirogane's lab," Kaede said with a nervous chuckle.

"No worries," Ryoma said, "I'll be helping to clean up. So it's just one more volunteer?"

"That'd be Saihara," Kokichi said, pointing at Shuichi with a teasing smirk, "You're not gonna leave my side, right?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah. No problem, I'll definitely help," Shuichi agreed, then walked around to the backstage and started rolling one of the tricks out. The other volunteers followed his lead, while everybody else made their ways out of the gym and dispersed. The group cleaning up the props from Kokichi's magic show got to work, and they were already nearly finished within ten minutes.

However, ten minutes was not enough time to clean up in a smart manner, so all four of them found themselves inside Kokichi's lab, moving things around to make space for the last few batches. Shuichi noticed something a bit strange when he glanced up at the clock, but brushed it off as nothing and got back to work, "So, Ouma," Ryoma started, " _Do_ you intend to put on more shows?"

"Of course I do!" Kokichi said, shoving a trick into the back corner of his lab, "That was the most fun I've had in a long time. Heck, if I could get away with it, I'd do one every week! But, I don't think I could do that. People would get sick of magic, even though I'd make sure to use totally different tricks every time."

"I have to admit... I had fun too," Ryoma said, "It may not have seemed like I was, but I'm just not the emotional type. I did enjoy that. I'd be glad to be your assistant again, since it seems I have a good memory for the stuff."

"Good point! I was totally convinced that with the show getting pushed up, Hoshi, you'd forget at least one of the things you were supposed to do without enough rehearsal," Kokichi laughed, "You did an awesome job! Maybe that's your talent. Ultimate Magician's Assistant? Nah, that's a little too specific, huh?"

"I told you I had an audiographic memory, didn't I?" Ryoma asked, "Since you gave me all the instructions out loud, there's no way I could ever forget them."

"Audiographic memory is really that powerful?" Shuichi pondered, "That's pretty cool, if I do say so myself."

Ryoma shrugged, "Well, it did come in handy for this at least."

Before anybody else could say anything, the door slammed open. All four of the cleanup crew turned their heads to see that Kaito was standing in the doorway, looking panicked as he spoke, desperation in his voice, "You need to find the Mastermind! Find the Mastermind and the game will stop!"

"Momota...?" Tenko, the closest one to the door, questioned, sounding a bit afraid.

"End the Killing Game!" Kaito insisted, getting louder and more frantic, "During this trial, you need to end it!"

"D-During this trial?" Kokichi asked, staring at Kaito. Kaito didn't have time to say anything else, falling forward in the doorway and revealing that his back was entirely covered in blood.

Monokuma's voice floated out through the P.A. system.

"Hey! I thought I told you all to be friends! And today started out so good too... A body has been discovered. All students please report to the gym, and I will deliver the Monokuma File."


	49. Deadly Life: Day Five (POV Swap; Investigation Start)

Three of the four people who'd witnessed the death of Kaito Momota were frozen in place. Tenko, however, wasn't the type to give in to shock. Unlike the talents of her friends, Tenko's Ultimate Talent put her in danger quite often. Most anthropologists didn't actually go exploring decrepit, falling apart ruins of ancient civilizations personally, but Tenko _was_ the Ultimate Anthropologist.

Rather than letting her surprise freeze her, Tenko grasped for the doorframe and stepped right over Kaito's body into the gym, running out towards the center. She didn't know what she was trying to find; Kaito's dying words had taken long enough that anybody had time to get far away. What confused Tenko was how somebody had gotten to Kaito without any witnesses.

She got her answer a moment later when she turned to look the other way, toward the few items that were yet to be returned to Kokichi's lab. She hadn't frozen before, but she froze now. The only thing that broke her from her confusion was the sound of Kaede's voice, "Oh my God... Maki?"

Kaede noticed as soon as she walked into the gym that right there, in the area which had been Kokichi's stage, was Maki. Not standing, but collapsed on the ground. Kaede rushed forward, only to find her shoulder grabbed as she passed by Tenko, "No, it's not Maki. It's Momota."

"What...?" Kaede asked, shaking her shoulder free then taking a few more steps forward. She could see when she approached that Maki did seem to be okay. Well, could a robot even be killed? Still, she didn't want to just leave her here to go examine the body. She looked behind her, and noticed that Rantaro had just arrived in the gym, "Amami! Get over here!"

At her call, Rantaro ran up to Kaede, then immediately realized what she wanted from him. He crouched down and scooped up Maki's head, cradling it and pressing the back of his palm against his forehead as if he were checking for a fever, then quickly yanked it back, "Shit! She's way too hot. Something must have happened to make her overheat..."

"She has coolant in her Ultimate Lab. Get her up there and try to get her to wake up, and I'm going to..." Her breath caught in her throat for a moment, but then she remembered that she was the only one who could do this. She needed to take charge of the situation, "I'm going to investigate the body."

"Understood," Rantaro agreed, then looked to Tenko, who immediately understood that he needed some help lifting the girl who was literally made of metal. She assisted him, taking up most of the weight as they made their ways out of the gym to try and wake her up and question her.

Kaede had the immediately theory that Maki and Kaito had been together, and whoever was behind this murder did something to get Maki to overheat and shut down in order to have no witness present. Though, wouldn't Maki then be able to identify the killer when she woke up? Kaede realized that she definitely needed more evidence before she actually began to toss potential theories around, and needed to wait until she could get testimonies from people.

She approached the body in the doorway. It was definitely Kaito, and he was definitely dead. She knelt down and reached out toward his back; There was so much blood there. She blinked a few times, then looked up to the three who were still in the lab, "So, what happened, exactly?"

"Momota stumbled in here," Ryoma answered, stepping closer. On the other hand, Shuichi and Kokichi had both backed away from the body to stand right next to each other, "He said some stuff that didn't make much sense, then he fell forward. His wounds became visible, then the body announcement sounded. We couldn't even tell he was injured till he fell over."

"Huh," Kaede noted, then reached for Kaito's jacket and pulled it off of him to get a clearer look. It appeared he'd been stabbed in the back several times with a spear, but not all the way through. They were shallow penetrations, hence how he'd been able to come and give his dying words. Though... "He didn't happen to mention anything that could translate to telling us who killed him, did he?"

"No, it kinda seemed like he wasn't at all interested in doing that," Ryoma noted, "Maybe he thought that nonsense was just more important... Well, we can bring those up during the trial, and maybe in front of everyone else they'll mean something to somebody."

"That's a good plan," Kaede said, inspecting Kaito for anything else that could be wrong, but it was only those wounds. With her initial examination completed, Kaede took out her Monopad to check the file, standing as she did to return to the gym. The file read out that the cause of death was stabbing with a weapon resembling a spear or pike; So that was included this time. Well, if there wasn't any debate over what could have been the cause of death, that made sense. The time of death was listed at 0830, though, which Kaede found a bit strange. Hadn't the magic show been from 0700 to 0900? That was something to keep in mind, she decided.

It seemed to her that this would be another case without much to learn on the actual scene. She glanced down at the floor and noted that there wasn't even much blood on the gym floor. No sign of the murder weapon, either. For the amount that Kaito had bled, there should have been more.

That was when Kaede spotted it. Kokichi had utilized a dropcloth underneath his act to avoid damaging the gym floor if he happened to spill any water from his tricks which used it, and there was some blood on it. Kaede furrowed her brow, then approached the cloth and lifted the corner. Under the faint blood she'd seen was a sticky pool, clinging between the cloth and the gym's floor. What she noticed on the other side was just what had seeped through... So this was the murder scene.

Her knuckles accidentally found themselves touching the pool, and she recoiled, then noticed something else strange. Blood cooled off very quickly once it left the body, but this pool was warm. Warmer than regular body temperature, even. She put the cloth back down and backed up, then groaned as she looked at her hand again.

She took a deep breath, then made her way out of the gym toward the bathroom so that she could wash off the blood she'd gotten on the back of her hand.


	50. Deadly Life: Day Five (Maki's Alibi)

As soon as Kaede left the bathroom after washing her hands, she found herself face-to-face with Kirumi, "Ah, sorry, Tojo. Am I in your way?"

"It's fine," Kirumi said, then held up her palm. It had a similar stain to the one Kaede had just washed off, "I discovered something strange in the hallway, and somehow decided the best way to investigate would be to touch it. So now I need to wash blood off my hand. It's right by the floor, near the door to the gym, if you want to take a look."

"Tojo, this probably sounds really weird," Kaede said, "But can I touch the blood on your hand?"

"You're the detective. Sure," Kirumi shrugged. Kaede reached out and poked it, "Care to tell me why?"

"It's just like I thought. This blood's already cold..." Kaede noted, "There's something weird going on here, I just have to get to the bottom of it. Thanks for cooperating, Tojo."

With that, Kaede dashed off. Where to next? She decided that it might be a good idea to check in with Maki and see if she knew anything, but first, the blood in the hallway. Kaede made her way back over there and knelt down. Sure enough, there was some blood staining the wall, and some had pooled in the seam between the wall and the floor. She knew better than to swipe her finger along that seam to verify it right after she'd washed her hands once already.

With that confirmed, Kaede worked her way upstairs to Maki's Ultimate Lab, where Rantaro and Tenko would have taken her to try and cool her off. Once Kaede opened the door, Tenko called out to her, "Ah, Akamatsu! We were able to wake her up, but we didn't want to jeopardize your questioning by saying anything, so we were waiting for you."

"Thank you," Kaede nodded as she approached the pool of coolant, which Maki was sitting in, "Hi, Maki."

"Hi," Maki said, "These two won't tell me what's going on. Why do you need to question me?"

"Ah... So, that means you don't have any information for me on what could have happened," Kaede sighed, then tried to keep her words gentle, "There's... Been a murder. Kaito Momota is dead."

"W-What!?" Maki questioned, staring at Kaede. She seemed to be having trouble processing this, then brought her hands up to hold her own arms, panic evidently setting in, "No, that can't... How... That's not possible, I, I was just with him. Wasn't I? I thought I was, I... How did I get here?"

"We found you overheated in the gym when we came to the gym after the body discovery announcement," Rantaro said.

"My theory is that somebody knocked you out before committing the murder to kill Momota without a witness," Kaede explained, "Were you alone together?"

"...Or after," Maki mumbled, staring at her own hands, "As far as I remember, it was just us, but the thing is... When I experience an emergency shutdown, I lose ten minutes of memory from directly before. So I couldn't tell you."

"Most of us were far away from the gym when the announcement happened," Rantaro noted, "Akamatsu, you and I were the first ones to arrive besides the witnesses. Why didn't Shirogane arrive along with you, since you two were together?"

"We were, but I was already on my way out of her lab when it happened," Kaede answered, "I guess that means I don't have an alibi... But I can only imagine that several people don't. As for the time window, well, I know objectively from the scope of Momota's wounds that he wouldn't have had more than three minutes from the time he was attacked to when he died."

"Maki was overheating much too severely to have passed out less than five minutes before we found her. So there's her alibi," Rantaro explained, "There's technically no way that she was anything other than collateral damage."

"I believe you," Kaede said, nodding toward Maki, "I really don't think Maki would have made herself overheat just to get an alibi, because it sounds like a really dangerous thing to do. Plus, she and Momota were friends."

"We were..." Maki mumbled, pulling her knees up to her chest where she sat, "Momota didn't deserve to die. He didn't deserve any of the bad things that've happened to him. He deserved to live longer and get to be happy longer... To graduate here, and then go back to his grandparents. He told me about them and they loved him a lot. It was tough for them to take care of him, so he tried to be self sustaining, but they really loved him and never would have asked him to do that."

"You really were close, weren't you?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow in concern.

"Yes," Maki said, "It's thanks to Saihara. He said he thought we'd get along, then we did. He had good judgement... Are, are we really certain he's dead?"

"He is," Kaede said, "I examined the body myself, and he died in front of four witnesses. He didn't die right away, he stumbled into Ouma's lab and said a few last words, apparently. Maybe if I pick their brains, they could have seen something past Momota, through the door... Ah, sorry," Kaede froze, "I'm trying to solve the mystery, and I'm being so insensitive."

"No, I understand," Maki said, clenching her teeth, "I want you to find out what happened to him, even if you have to be insensitive to do that. You're the only one who can find justice, after all."

"Maki..." Kaede suddenly realized something, "How are you... Handling these new emotions? I know you've experienced grief before, but you didn't know Yumeno or Shinguji very well. Momota _was_ your friend."

"I'm trying not to handle them," Maki said, looking up at the ceiling, "I... If I think too hard about it, I might just overheat again. Or bug out even worse, somehow. So with that in mind, Akamatsu, could you please take your investigation elsewhere for the time being?"

"Yes, of course. You've helped me as much as you can, anyway," Kaede said, standing back up and making her way out of Maki's Ultimate Lab. She wasn't sure where else to investigate, though. She didn't even have a leading suspect right now. She herself had a shaky alibi, sure, but most of the others would too. Rantaro did as well, but if he was responsible, why would he and Maki's stories of her overheating match up?

Kaede realized there _was_ somewhere else she had to investigate. But could she even get there?


	51. Deadly Life: Day Five (The Murder Weapon)

Kaede had a plan. She couldn't get inside of Korekiyo's Ultimate Lab; That much was certain, but somebody else might be able to. She felt that it was important she got inside, because she didn't remember seeing anything which could create the sort of wounds that Kaito had anywhere but there. Nothing in the warehouse, or in anybody else's lab.

It couldn't be that easy to hide a murder weapon of that variety, either. The fact that she hadn't found it, that nobody else had yet informed her that _they'd_ found it, convinced her that there was a chance it had been hidden in the one part of the Academy that nobody could get into. Kaede hadn't been able to personally observe it, but did hear that during a murder investigation all of the dorm rooms were unlocked.

The only place off-limits was that Ultimate Lab. Who could get inside it? Well, Tenko probably could... But if Kaede thought hard enough about it, almost everybody could do it. She needed to ask around and find out if anyone could get her inside to check, though. She returned downstairs, to the gym, and peered into Kokichi's lab.

Much to her surprise, there was nobody there anymore. Just Kaito's body lying on the floor. She backed up, then turned to look around the gym. Empty too. She wandered into the hallway, then out to the courtyard, and found that Shuichi and Kokichi were standing in front of the doors for the dorm building. She approached, "Hey, what's going on? I though you were too freaked out by the body to step over it."

"Idabashi helped us," Kokichi explained, "He figured out a way for us to get over it. He had the three of us close our eyes, then one at a time, he had us walk around the room enough to feel like it was a different entrance, made sure we didn't step on the body, and brought us out to the courtyard. That's a different kind of illusion, huh?"

"By the way," Shuichi spoke up, "We took the liberty of investigating the dorm rooms. We didn't find anything suspicious in anybody's room, so it kind of just feels like invasions of their privacy, but it was for the sake of solving the case, so..."

"Speaking of invasions of privacy," Kaede found the perfect segue, "Ouma. This may sound a little strange, but as an escape artist, you could escape a room that was locked from the outside, right? So could you get inside a room that's locked from the inside?"

"Hm? Yeah, I can do that. I can also get inside Shinguji's lab, if that's what you're wondering. That's not a room that's locked from the inside, though. The door's actually just painted on, with knobs glued on. There's another way in and out, though. There always is," Kokichi answered, then started walking towards the doors, "I'll get you in, Akamatsu, but Saihara's not coming with us. I got in trouble for getting in there once before, so I'm not going to drag him into it too."

"That's the small rule you broke?" Kaede questioned, hesitating just a moment before she followed him.

"It is," Kokichi answered, sticking his hands behind his head with a shrug, "If you're concerned, though, all I took was some replica swords, not anything like what the Monokuma File said the cause of death was. Things like katanas modeled after the ones used in famous assassinations and stuff, I figured they could replace the boring swords that came in my sword-box trick. Ah, if you don't believe me, feel free to search my room!"

"I'll trust you for now, but I'll be taking you up on that offer too," Kaede noted, "No hard feelings, Ouma, but as the Ultimate Detective, I can't just rule you out."

"I understand, but also, I have a pretty good alibi," Kokichi noted, climbing the stairs ahead of Kaede, "I was with three other people, in my Ultimate Lab for a good fifteen minutes or so before Momota stumbled in there and died, and before that, I don't think any of us were ever alone in a room for more than a few seconds. And before _that_ was the magic show. So the four of us who were cleaning up have super solid alibis!"

"I can't be so sure about that," Kaede noted, "Because, well, the time of death is a bit strange. We can discuss that during the trial, though. Right now, I just need to figure out the murder weapon..."

"Good point," Kokichi said, then approached Korekiyo's lab. He stepped around to the side, put his hands on his hips, then kicked his heel down against the floor. Kaede jumped when the floorboard popped up, and Kokichi caught it in his hand, then looked to her, "Hey, sometimes all it takes to escape or get inside is to find the structural failures. Every building has 'em."

Kaede gave him an odd look, "That... Doesn't really seem like you're talking about being the Ultimate Magician anymore, to tell you the truth."

"It doesn't?" Kokichi asked, blinking at her, "Well, any magician can be your standard escape artist with cuffs or chains or glass boxes full of water. Wouldn't it make sense that the Ultimate Magician would know how to do something with the stakes a little higher than that? Like, getting out of a full-on prison or something! Now that'd be a stunt. I haven't taken on a challenge quite that big yet."

"I guess you have a point there," Kaede noted, then crouched down and looked into the hole Kokichi had created in the floor, "Huh, there's a whole crawlspace down here. The floorboards seemed pretty sturdy to me, so I wouldn't have guessed..."

"Every floor has a crawlspace, as far as I've discovered," Kokichi explained, "Let me go first, okay? I know where a loose board on the other side is so we can get out. Hm... Huh, if you were any bigger than you are, you probably wouldn't be able to squeeze in one floorboard wide. Iruma could never make it."

"H-Hey!" Kaede exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Huh?" Kokichi looked up to her face, then realized the source of her indignance, "Oh, that's just an observation. I couldn't honestly say that I've ever been romantically or sexually attracted to a woman."

"That... Makes it only marginally less embarrassing," Kaede pouted.

"Well, let's go," Kokichi shrugged, then dropped down into the crawlspace. Kaede waited until he was out of her sight, then followed, and he was right. She could barely squeeze between the boards. So if the murder weapon was in this room, that would eliminate Gonta and Miu for sure, probably a few others too.

After Kaede was crouched inside the crawlspace, it was only a few moments as far as she could tell before she saw light filtering in from further away, and noted movement in that bit of light. So Kokichi had found the board, and gotten into the room. Kaede made her way forward, only for a searing pain to blossom out from her forehead. She grit her teeth, but it didn't help, and she couldn't even bring her palm down to crawl another bit before the bit of vision she had found itself overcome by dark splotches, and she fell over.


	52. Deadly Life: Day Five (Inside The Lab)

Kaede opened her eyes in an unfamiliar room. She looked up to an unfamiliar ceiling, then brought one hand up to her forehead and used the other to prop herself up. As soon as she was sitting up, she looked across the room to see Kokichi, concern etched in his face. It was obvious he was worried, and Kaede's amazing deductive skills let her pick up that, despite what must have been attempts to collect himself before she woke up, he had been crying.

"Hey, Akamatsu..." Kokichi was trying to sound casual, but his voice was faint, "You scared me there, idiot. Good job hitting your head on a support pillar! Made me drag you up here to make sure you weren't dead and everything."

"Did I really manage to do that?" Kaede asked, grimacing, "You're right to call me an idiot, good grief. I thought I was getting murdered."

"You did manage that. Anyway," Kokichi gestured around, "This is Shinguji's lab. Well, as much of it as was built. I think it was supposed to include more weaponry than this, but, yeah. You better not pass out again while we're leaving."

"Awh," Kaede chuckled a bit, bringing the hand that had been holding her forehead to her mouth instead, "You know, I can't say that I'm not a little surprised. You were so worried about me that you cried? I didn't think you cared that much."

"Of course I did," Kokichi sounded much more harsh than Kaede expected, "I was afraid that you were dead! Momota's been murdered, and whoever did it... Is also going to be executed. I couldn't stand it if a third person was killed too. I don't want to be alone. I don't want to lose the people who make me feel safe, you understand? I'd rather be killed myself than watch that happen around me... And you're one of those people too, Akamatsu."

"I never thought of it that way," Kaede mumbled, then glanced around the room, "Huh. Nothing like a spear in here... You're right, it does seem kind of barren. Like there should be a bigger assortment."

"Monokuma did say that it was unfinished," Kokichi said, sighing as he sat with his legs crossed, "I don't like it in here. Shinguji, what a bastard he was. He took Yumeno away from us for no reason. I _don't_ miss him."

"It's kind of hard to. He never gave us the chance to know him at all," Kaede noted, "All we really know about him is what he did, and that was a terrible thing. So, I guess I can't say I much appreciate being in his Ultimate Lab. We should leave. There wasn't anything here useful to me after all."

"I thought you might notice something I was forgetting, or the murder weapon would be stashed somewhere in here," Kokichi said, "But now, I guess that bringing you in here was just a mistake that ended up getting you hurt."

"I needed to know. I wouldn't have taken you at face value if you just told me there was nothing here," Kaede said, then looked to the hole in the floor, "Uh. I didn't close the floorboard on the other side, so do you think you could guide me through the crawlspace? Just, a little bit. A little bit so that I don't crawl right into a support pole again."

"Sure thing," Kokichi nodded, then walked past Kaede to climb back down under the floor. Kaede climbed down behind him, and he reached back to hold her wrist, taking her through to the other side. Once they emerged, Kokichi looked to her and spoke again, "Sorry about all of this. That you got hurt, and... That you had to see me that way."

"That way?" Kaede asked, then shrugged, "Ah, you mean... Letting me know that you're scared? There's no need to apologize for that. We all are, Ouma. Speaking of, I bet Saihara's waiting for you to get back to him. But first, can you tell me something? How... How long did this whole thing take?"

"You were only out for ten minutes. So I'd say, twenty-five total. Last time we got an hour and a half for investigation, so there's probably not much time left," Kokichi said, "I guess Monokuma thinks that's enough time because we have you on our side. Well, it was in the last case. So, with ten minutes left, where are you going to check? The dorms?"

"No," Kaede shook her head, walking with Kokichi toward the stairs, "I'll trust that you and Saihara did that well enough. I think that the last place I need to investigate is actually another Ultimate Lab. I can get into it by myself, though."

"Good to hear," Kokichi said, then the two of them parted ways when they reached the entrance hall. Kokichi went back outside to meet up with Shuichi, and Kaede continued down the hallway. She took a deep breath as she stood at the top of the stairs. Depending on what she discovered in the basement, she could end up with information that brought several people under suspicion. Or left her with nothing useful, again.

Or perhaps just somewhere in between. Kaede lay her hand against the banister, then felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped, then turned to see Tsumugi, and relaxed, "Ah, Shirogane..."

"Akamatsu. I was looking for you... Saihara said that you went with Ouma to investigate something, but I couldn't find either of you anywhere. Are you okay?" Tsumugi questioned.

"I'm fine. Thanks for worrying," Kaede gave a nervous chuckle, lifting a hand to press at the bruising of her forehead, "Ouma was showing me the secret way inside Shinguji's lab, because I was trying to figure out the murder weapon. It took a little longer than it should have because I walked into a post and knocked myself out cold."

"Seriously?" Tsumugi questioned, then heaved a heavy sigh, "Akamatsu, please. Don't make us need to investigate your murder next, only to find out your killer was yourself and the murder weapon was a wall you walked into."

"I don't think it would go that far. I'm not usually clumsy," Kaede protested, "Anyway..."

"Yeah," Tsumugi stepped up next to Kaede and looked down the stairs as well, "The murder weapon's nowhere, but it's possible..."

"Isn't it just?" Kaede nodded, then started to walk down the stairs. Tsumugi trailed after her, four steps behind as they both made their way to Rantaro's lab


	53. Deadly Life: Day Five (Investigation End)

Kaede and Tsumugi realized something the moment they stepped into Rantaro's Ultimate Lab. The theory that the two of them shared? Was definitely implausible. Both of them had this idea that Rantaro had been able to craft a weapon that could make the sort of wounds that Kaito had, but both of them had enough general knowledge to know it wasn't possible in seconds.

"None of this metal is able to be shaped," Kaede noted, looking around the whole lab, "It's all organized into premade parts. I don't doubt Amami could do whatever he wanted with these parts, from a mechanical standpoint, but there's definitely nothing in here that could be used as that type of weapon. There's nothing here weak enough to be manipulated by anything short of a machine or a blacksmith, unless you count solder."

"Nobody could make a spear out of solder," Tsumugi noted, "And none of this stuff could be combined to make anything even close to a spear, pike, or stake, right? Unless I'm missing something. You can tell more just by looking than I can."

"You're not missing anything," Kaede said, though she was still giving the room another sweep, "Unless I'm also missing something. I really don't think I... Wait," Kaede froze, then walked over to one of Rantaro's counters and climbed up on it. She felt Tsumugi's hands on her ankles seconds later, and scoffed, "Shirogane, really. I'm not clumsy most of the time. It was dark in that crawlspace."

"I'd still rather you didn't fall onto something lying around in here," Tsumugi said, "What did you see?"

Kaede reached toward the wall, pressing the palms of her hands against it on either side of the clock, staring it down, "Shirogane, I do need you to release my ankles... Because I'd like to ask you to check what time your Monopad is currently reporting. Don't worry, I'm very sturdy up here."

"Ah, okay," Tsumugi agreed, pulling her Monopad out, "It says that the time is ten AM. Why?"

"Because," Kaede said, "This clock has the same problem as the one in the gym... I think. It's reading eleven AM. It's an entire hour fast."

"Now that you mention it," Tsumugi mumbled, "I think some of the other clocks are like that, too. The one in Ouma's lab, and in the new labs, are telling the right time, but I think most of the clocks in the school are running an hour fast, compared to the Monopad time."

"I want to check something out," Kaede said, then pressed her fingernails between the clock and the drywall, popping it off of the wall. She held it in her hands and turned it over, examining the back. She found a switch, and kept her finger by it as she turned the clock again, and hit the switch while watching the clock face. The hour hand went back. She flipped it again, and it snapped forward. She carefully climbed down, showing it to Tsumugi, "It's daylight saving, Shirogane. Somebody set most of the clocks in the school to daylight saving time..."

"I see," Tsumugi sounded a bit disappointed, "Well, that still isn't a lead, or is it? If it's just a switch on the back, anybody could have done it. Were it something more complicated, it could give us a suspect, but as is... Anybody here could have changed all the clocks."

"Are you sure about that?" Kaede asked, then nodded to the counter, "It would be kind of conspicuous if somebody on the shorter side, like me, was going around changing all the clocks... Don't you think? Climbing up on things, especially the hallway clocks. They'd need to carry a chair out from the dining hall or something like that, and anyone would notice. It would have to be somebody tall..."

"Or somebody acting at nighttime," Tsumugi said, "Nobody would notice, then. They'd just have to set a chair aside."

"Well," Kaede shrugged, "Good point, but there's a few things wrong with that theory too. The clocks are changed in some places which aren't open at night. Ugh... I honestly don't have any theories at all."

"That's fine," Tsumugi shrugged, offering her a smile, "That's what the trial is for, you know. Just because you're the Ultimate Detective doesn't mean the burden rests on you. Ouma helped you out during the last trial, didn't he? Well, he helped all of us out. If we'd given up on finding the real truth... That would have been awful. And that magic show, too? I can't help but kind of wonder why he's being so nice. Maybe he was just planning something all along."

Kaede blinked at Tsumugi, then shook her head, "Ah, no. There's no way. But like you said, we'll find the truth during our class trial."

"We will," Tsumugi agreed, then approached the door and pulled it open, motioning for Kaede to go on ahead of her, "Speaking of, we should probably start heading that direction, right? It's only a matter of time before Monokuma announces that we're starting the trial, if we had the same amount of time to investigate as we did before."

"You're right," Kaede agreed, and the pair were halfway up the stairs when Tsumugi's prediction came true.

"Upupu! Okay everybody!" Monokuma's voice filled the air, "Please report to the Shrine of Judgment immediately and we'll begin our class trial! The first true class trial of the Killing Game... It's all so exciting! Aren't you looking forward to finding out who did it? I know, of course. Knowing the answer ahead of time kind of spoils a mystery, but watching somebody read your favorite book with a twist ending is its own special type of fun!"

Kaede sighed and continued up the stairs. Those words... Why would Monokuma give them a hint like that? The first real class trial of the Killing Game? It was a taunt, but a telling one. Kaito's death was a murder. Whoever was responsible had undone Korekiyo's only good deed and kicked off the Killing Game that everyone had promised not to participate in. Kaede just had one question that burned above all others.

Why would anybody commit a murder without a motive?


	54. Second Trial (Time Discrepancy)

As soon as everybody was gathered in the class courtroom, the trial was to begin. Monokuma gave a similar greeting to the first trial's, "Okay everybody, the Class Trial will now begin! The victim is Kaito Momota, and the culprit? Let's see you flex your deduction skills! Take it away, Akamatsu!"

"I won't thank you," Kaede hissed at it, then straightened up and addressed the entire room, "Okay, everybody. Here are the facts of this murder's timeline. The time of death was 0830. However, we were all attending Ouma's magic show between 0700 and 0900. Does anybody know how that might be?" She hoped Tsumugi would catch her drift, realize that she was trying to smoke out who else might be aware of the daylight savings button.

"Isn't that obvious?" Kirumi asked, raising her eyebrows, "Momota died during the magic show. As simple as that. Just because none of us realized he was dead, the body discovery announcement failed to play. Did he say anything after the show? Did anyone actually see him moving on his own? I know I didn't pay much attention."

"That's ridiculous, Tojo," Maki immediately spoke up, "I was talking with him, we were together ten minutes before the body discovery announcement, at least. Maybe longer."

"Maybe?" Kiibo questioned, "Why is it a maybe? Shouldn't you know what happened if you're going to vouch for something in a murder trial?"

"There's a good reason that it's a maybe," Rantaro stood up for Maki, pointing toward her, "When we found Maki, one minute after the body discovery announcement, she had overheated and shut down. When Maki shuts down because of a problem, she loses her memory of ten minutes before the event, in case the cause was something shocking that could cause her to overheat a second time upon remembering it."

"I don't disbelieve you," Tsumugi spoke up, raising a finger in the air, "But, if that really is the case, how are any problems with Maki supposed to be diagnosed? Surely the data of what caused her to overheat is stored somewhere. Lab equipment all does that, so it would be a real oversight for the Ultimate Robot to be lacking such an important feature."

Maki answered for herself, "A log does exist, but not locally. My internal data streams to the cloud, and I don't have access to it. Amami couldn't get into it either. Besides, that would only happen if my wireless switch were turned on. It's been off for days. The only people who could tell you what happened in the ten minutes before I overheated would be... Momota, and whoever caused me to overheat."

"Why do you assume it's a who?" Angie asked, raising her hands above her head, "I mean, isn't it possible you overheated all on your own? Or maybe Momota and the person who made you overheat are one and the same! I bet he could get pret-ty infuriating! Does that happen, Maki? As a robot, do you get literally burning mad?"

Before Maki had the chance to respond, Kirumi shouted out, "Yonaga! What right do you have to call Momota infuriating? Saying things like that makes you look suspicious too."

"Wowee, you aren't good at mysteries, are you?" Angie asked, "I didn't say he ever infuriated me, but if I had to talk to him every day like you guys? I bet he could. I asked a good question, and you all totally ignored it to start accusing me instead... Now _that_ is infuriating!"

"To answer your question," Maki said, "It is possible that Momota himself caused me to overheat, or an internal problem occurred... But doesn't it seem convenient that would happen? I believe that it is the fault of the culprit."

"In any case," Kiibo spoke up, "It does seem that we can assume Momota did not die during the magic show, despite the discrepancy in the timing..."

"Actually," Shuichi said, realizing something, "I think... I did notice something. The clock in the gym and the clock in Ouma's lab didn't match up. Right after we started packing up, I could have sworn that Ouma's clock said it was just a little past eight. But the magic show was from seven to nine. We all know that... But now this? I just don't get it."

Kaede and Tsumugi stayed quiet. Kaede still didn't have a suspect to pursue, and somebody who knew the clocks had a daylight saving setting would be just what she needed to start going somewhere.

"One thing is sure!" Gonta exclaimed, "Magic show one hour after waking up! Gonta know because it take two hours to wake up completely. Did not truly wake till after show started."

"Nobody's debating the actual timeline, but the time it was," Tenko assured Gonta, "There's no such thing as time travel, so we just need to figure out why things aren't lining up with the time we thought it was."

"Not possible?" Gonta asked, "Not even Ouma, with magic?"

"Nah, big guy," Kokichi answered, "If I could travel through time, there's plenty of better things I'd have done than kill one of my friends, you know. I would have gone back and kept Shinguji from ever poisoning Yumeno. The fact that she's dead now is proof that I can't use time travel!"

"That wasn't even something that should have needed to be proven," Kiibo sighed, glaring around the room, "We aren't getting anywhere at all chasing after this time thing! We can establish correct timing and alibis later, and work on figuring out something else first, right? That's what we did with the last trial. Put it down to come back to later."

"You're right, Idabashi," Kaede said in a manner of thanking him, "We can come back to this! Let's try and figure this out from another angle. Now, I don't have any leads on the murder weapon, but... Maybe we could find something that points to motive?"

"That's my cue, huh, Akamatsu?" Ryoma asked, and she just gave a coy giggle as if it hadn't been her intention at all. It most certainly was, so Ryoma continued, "There are four of us who heard Momota's last words. Three of us four probably can't even remember what they were about... But I can recite them verbatim."


	55. Second Trial (Maki)

"You actually remember what he said?" Tenko questioned, then slammed her hands down on the podium in front of herself, "Right, your memory thing! He said it out loud, so you'd remember it!"

"Yes," Ryoma confimed, "I have an audiographic memory, and it only becomes flawless when I hear something I wasn't expecting to hear. While I can usually recall what people's meanings were, it takes a shocking occurrence for me to recall something word for word, as well as tone and cadence. Momota's death was beyond shocking, so of course I know what he said. It doesn't make much sense though."

"Well, go on then," Kaede said. Ryoma recited the words, and she had an immediate reaction, "Mastermind?"

"It's nonsense, right?" Ryoma seemed to be pushing for the lack of sense present in Kaito's last words, even when Kaede seemed to have a flash of recognition.

Shuichi spoke up, "Ah... Now that you say it, I remember. Right when he said it, I was just wondering... How did Momota hear about that? Because Shirogane, Akamatsu, and I were sort of talking about something like that. We didn't say Mastermind, but we were talking about what kind of person or group could have put us here."

Angie was the first to react to that, "Uh, isn't it obvious how Momota knew about that? One of you told him, right?"

"I know I didn't," Tsumugi said, then looked to Kaede for the final word.

"I didn't either," Kaede answered, "And, like Saihara said, we didn't use the term Mastermind in our conversation! We didn't even think much of it, either. We moved on after just a little bit of discussion... For all we know, there isn't even anyone directly behind this. It could just be Monokuma. A robot as advanced as Maki exists, so..."

"He sounded desperate," Ryoma noted, "Like I said, tone and cadence. It was as if Momota was completely certain a Mastermind exists... So who could have told him that?"

"You're right," Kiibo agreed, "Momota never struck me as the type to have such conviction in something like that. A theory that he came up with on his own, I mean. Somebody had to have given him that idea, and had something to back it up with, too."

"Momota believed in people, not concepts," Tsumugi added in, "He may have seemed laid-back, but he was still a scientist. Believing somebody's a good person, he'd do that without hesitation for sure. But believing an abstract theory like 'There is A Mastermind' without facts? That wouldn't happen. So somebody else is responsible for Momota's last words..."

"And for that matter," Kaede added in, "There has to be a reason that he said _that_ instead of telling us the identity of his killer. Does anyone know why that would be?"

"It's obvious to me," Kokichi said with a small shrug of his shoulders, "Momota wanted the Killing Game to stop before the end of this trial. That's what he said, in a few more words. Read between the lines! He wants the Killing Game to be over before his killer can be executed. So, whoever killed Momota was somebody that he cared about. Somebody he really wouldn't want to die."

Everyone seemed to think for a moment, then Kiibo spoke up, "That deduction doesn't help us at all. Momota could have held that opinion towards any and all of us."

Rantaro waved a bit with one hand to get people's attention toward him before he spoke, "No, I think it makes sense to think about. Momota may have considered himself friends with all of us, but aside from Saihara, those of us in Ouma's group didn't have much interaction with him. So, it's more likely to be one of you. Or Saihara."

"Master Momota had so much love in his heart... In his whole body!" Miu exclaimed, "That doesn't narrow it down at all, because I know for certain he wouldn't want anyone here, not even Hoshi who he never exchanged a sentence with, to be executed for killing him," Miu sniffed, seeming to have started crying in her defense, "H-He didn't value himself enough to think anyone would deserve to be executed, if it was him."

"What do you mean, Iruma?" Tenko questioned, "Wasn't Momota always calling himself King of The Bugs? It seemed to me like he had great self esteem!"

"It's obvious you didn't even know him," Miu wiped her eyes, then looked right at Shuichi, "But, Saihara. You know, right? He must have confided in you, if he confided in me."

Shuichi stared back at her, then gave a slow nod and a deep breath before he answered, "Momota became King of The Bugs because he hated going home. He would always stay outside as much as possible, because his home life was bad enough that he was eventually relocated by protective services to his grandparents' house. Of course he'd have low self esteem if he grew up being abused and told he wasn't worth it."

"He really... Didn't deserve to die," Maki was shaking as she said this, her voice low and serious, "He should have lived long enough to be truly happy! He should have been able to graduate from here, with us. He had so much to give the world-"

"Hey, who are you trying to fool?" Angie asked, patting her own cheeks as she leaned forward, "I get that you're capable of friendship and emotions, but come on. You're a robot. Who'd even think to program in the detail of emotional tremors? Stop trying to make us feel bad, you're doing that on purpose."

"I swear I'm not!" Maki shouted, taking a step forward with her fists clenched, "I am the Ultimate Robot for my ability to be the most human robot ever created! Of course as an Ultimate, with a talent like that, I'd have physical responses to trauma too..."

"You can say that," Kiibo said, "But that doesn't mean we have to believe you. An Ultimate Robot could also be programmed to lie. In fact, for all we know, you're still a suspect in this case. Amami could be lying along with you."

"Hey, that's not right!" Tenko called out, "Amami couldn't be lying about Maki, because I helped to carry her to her Ultimate Lab to get the coolant. She was way too hot. I'd say about... Three hundred C!"

"An overheating computer will usually shut off in self-defense after 110 Celsius," Tsumugi noted, "And needs time to naturally cool below 105 before you can safely power it back on. If Chabashira's estimate is accurate, then ten minutes is by far a _conservative_ estimate of when Maki shut off. Even if she fought against being overheated using willpower, it probably got too much even for her somewhere around the 350 mark, or between that and 300. I can't imagine robots are that differently, physiologically, from lab equipment, right?"

"Your knowledge saves us again!" Kokichi exclaimed, "So, basically, it's impossible for Maki to have killed Momota, if she was so hot?"

"Even without that alibi, I never could have killed him anyway," Maki seemed to have calmed down a bit, thinking rationally, "After all, I am bound by the three laws of robotics."

Kaede was surprised for only a moment before she spoke up again, "Isaac Asimov! Three laws of decreasing priority, right?"

Maki nodded, "Yes. The first law is that a robot may never bring harm to a human being through action or inaction. The second is that a robot must act on any order given by a human, as long as it does not contradict the first law. And the third is that a robot must preserve its own existence, except where it would contradict the first or second laws," She sighed, "I didn't want to bring it up, since everyone was treating me like a human, but I guess it's necessary now."

"And since Maki is bound by those laws," Rantaro spoke up, "There's no way she could have killed Momota. So, can we move on to something else that's weird? How about... The crime scene?"


	56. Second Trial (Kokichi)

"Well, it was the gym, right?" Tenko asked, "Momota was attacked right where Ouma's stage had been, then stumbled into the lab to say his last words to us!"

"It's also possible that it could have been that lab, though," Kirumi said, "Momota could have been killed in front of your eyes without you even realizing, right? Who's to say that he was already dying when he spoke to you? Maybe he'd just seen his killer coming and acted preemptively."

"No way!" Kokichi called out, "We could see past Momota the minute he fell over and there wasn't anyone behind him."

"As if you could tell," Rantaro countered, "Maki was on the floor in the gym behind Momota, and nobody noticed until leaving the lab. All the killer would have had to do was dive out of sight!"

"I still think it was in the gym, though," Kiibo said, "After all, that's the only place that there were any bloodstains."

"That's a good point," Kirumi conceded.

"No, actually..." Kaede mumbled, then raised her voice and pointed at Kirumi, "That's a terrible point! And you, Tojo, should know it!"

"What do you mean?" Kirumi asked.

Kaede crossed her arms, staring Kirumi down as she said, "There was blood somewhere else. In the hallway just outside of the gym. You definitely knew about it, because you're the one who told me it was there. So why exactly would you deny its existence now? Are you trying to cover something up?"

"Of course I'm not," Kirumi shook her head, "Why would you think that? I just don't think the blood in the hallway is important, with how much of it was inside the gym..."

"That's the thing, though. Most of what was in the gym was on the underside of that tarp, wasn't it?" Kaede prodded, "So it could have been moved, and easily for that matter, from another location. Like the hallway."

"I don't think that's possible!" Tenko said, "When we found Maki, she was on top of the dropcloth! As a robot, she's really heavy. Plus, Amami and I could only carry her while she was overheating by putting layers of clothing behind our hands and her burning hot skin. Since she overheated before the murder, she would have needed to be moved to accomplish that."

"You and Amami did manage to move her, though. And both of you were early on the scene," Kiibo pointed out, "You could have done the same thing sooner."

"Chabashira has an alibi, though," Shuichi spoke up, "The four of us who were cleaning up the magic show never had a moment alone the whole time. And we were all inside the lab tidying up together for quite a while before Momota arrived."

"Why is every single lead shot down so easily...?" Angie asked, pouting, "At this rate, we're never gonna figure out the truth! Did the person who killed Momota want us all to die too? Who would do such a thing?"

"The Mastermind, obviously," Tsumugi said, looking around, "Maybe... The Mastermind is the one who killed Momota. He wasn't telling us to save them at all. Didn't he say 'If you kill the Mastermind, the Killing Game will stop'?" Finding the truth and getting the Mastermind executed would accomplish that too. That would explain how we have such a perplexing situation on our hands..."

"That's a good idea," Rantaro said, looking around the room, "Maybe, we _can_ use this trial to uncover the Mastermind, but we'd be better off just working through it as usual."

"Gonta... Have theory," Gonta spoke up, "Not wish to distrust friends, but Ouma could do it. Even with alibi. The magic trick, cutting shadows! Could kill from far away!"

"That's nonsense," Tsumugi said, then blinked a few times, "Even so... The murder weapon. Ouma was the only one with access to Shinguji's lab, right?"

Kaede nodded, "Yes, but there wasn't anything in there that could have been used to do this, and we didn't find anything like that anywhere else on the campus either. I checked the lab myself!"

"You did," Tsumugi said, "But didn't you black out during that effort? You told me you walked into a post, but didn't you think for a second that Ouma could have attacked you so he would have the opportunity to hide the relevant weaponry without seeming suspicious by denying you entry into the lab?"

Kaede thought for a moment, then shook her head, "No, I didn't know Ouma had gotten into the lab at all before he gave the information up. Why go to all that trouble to avoid being suspected if he could have just told me there was no way to get inside the lab in the first place?"

"Hey! Don't you want to give me a chance to defend myself? I'm the one being accused here, after all," Kokichi said, raising one hand in the air then lowering it to rest on the podium in front of himself, "Not that I don't truly appreciate it, Akamatsu. In any case, Shirogane makes a few good points. Gokuhara, not so much. Sorry, buddy, but you know what I do is just tricks, right? It's just normal everyday stuff done up to look like the impossible."

"I make good points?" Tsumugi asked, glancing around the room, "You'd admit that I could be right that you were the only person with access to the murder weapon?"

"I would," Kokichi said, then smirked, "Ah, if that were the case, huh? If we could just figure out the weapon, then this would be so easy. Oh, except, are we forgetting that we all know somebody who can make anything he wants, murder weapon included...?"

"You mean Amami?" Tsumugi asked, "Akamatsu and I checked his lab. There wasn't anything there that could be melted by anything short of a smithy, basically. Right?"

"That's true. All Amami has at his disposal is a blowtorch and a soldering gun, both for bonding purposes, not for shaping metal," Kaede agreed, "Anyone could tell that much."

Kokichi nodded, "Yeah, sure, that's true. But a lot of Shinguji's swords and such were replicas, with accurate alloys and everything. Some of them are some weak metal! The ID tags on the hilts said as much, anyway. I bet a blowtorch could melt gold if you tried hard enough, it's a soft metal, right? Oh... And Gokuhara? Wanna know how I did that trick with cutting shadows?"

"Yes," Gonta nodded, "Want to understand."

Kokichi laughed a bit, then raised a finger in the air, "Okay, then. The truth is, the flower's held together by wax. One spotlight makes the shadows, distracting from the heatlamp positioned above the thing. All I had to do was watch for the leaves to droop, and that meant the wax was melting away! Time it right on the shadow, it's good to go. Oh, and of course, I couldn't have done it without _Amami's_ help."


	57. Second Trial (Rantaro)

"Are you accusing me, Ouma?" Rantaro asked, sounding more confused than offended.

Kokichi shrugged, then gave his answer, "Accusing you? Nah, I don't think you did it. I just think that you probably made the murder weapon, and maybe the heat lamp you made for my trick is involved. But, what do I know? You're the expert. Ah, did you screw up the clocks too?"

"Actually," Tsumugi took a deep breath, then looked to Kaede for reassurance. At a nod, she continued, "Akamatsu and I have known the secret of the clocks since the beginning. We kept quiet in the hopes that somebody would let slip that they knew about this, but... Whoever knew is too clever. Every clock on campus has a daylight savings switch on the back, and most of them got changed so that the clocks were an hour ahead of our monopads, and the actual time."

"Upupu..." Monokuma added in, "Yes, that's true. I'm embarrassed to say, but I fell for it too. I checked the clock in the gym and accidentally woke you all up at five in the morning! Good on you for figuring it out, but that's all I'll say."

"All of the clocks in the dorms were changed as well," Shuichi noted, "How did whoever did this get inside when there was no murder investigation going on?"

"If Ouma could get into Shinguji's lab, who's to say that he couldn't also get into every dorm to change the time?" Kiibo asked, "After we all worked so hard to get the magic show set up, we were exhausted enough to sleep through a quiet break-in. Those clocks in our rooms only seem to make noise when set to alarm, for that matter."

Shuichi argued, "Yes, we were all dead tired, but that includes Ouma! He has an alibi all night, anyw-" He realized what he was saying, and cut himself off. He'd promised to keep Kokichi's secret after all. Though, when Kokichi spoke again, it seemed he was aware that the stop was out of concern for him than for Shuichi's own self.

"It's okay, Saihara. We can clear my name, even at the expense of my privacy," Kokichi said, "In fact, my alibi also explains how Amami could have gotten the metal to make the murder weapon! Saihara spent the night in my room. Make of that what you will, I guess, any defense I could offer against your assumptions would go unheard for sure. He would have noticed, anyway, if I'd moved. Even exhaustion couldn't stop somebody from taking notice if a person in the same bed suddenly left."

"Okay, one question," Tenko spoke up, "What does that have to do with Amami getting the metal, and also, why...?"

Kokichi clicked his tongue, "I said, I won't give excuses. Let your little tomb raider brain run wild, Chabashira. Anyway, I left first! Soo, Saihara doesn't have a key or anything. He couldn't lock the room behind me. Though, I guess this means that the choice of weapon wasn't anywhere near as premeditated as everything else. Just the icing on the cake of a mystery that we just can't figure out! If the weapon had been something easier to obtain, well, we might have known who the culprit was by now."

"Even if I am an accomplice," Rantaro said with a half shrug, as if he didn't even care that he was being accused of assisting in a murder, "Who would be the culprit I was assisting? We're still no closer to that answer. The simple fact stands that nobody had motive to kill Momota."

"You had motive to help, though," Tenko spoke up, "So how could you say there was no motive at play here? Unless you're saying that you assisted in a murder just because. If that were the case..."

Rantaro looked to Tenko, "You don't think that I would do that, do you? There's a difference between a motive and a reason. I am not a killer. I could never be, even to my most hated person. There was a reason. But isn't that for you guys to figure out? If I just confess everything now, you won't believe me."

"Besides," Kokichi spoke up again, "I don't think we're thinking about this the right way. The killer might not be anyone with anything against Momota. Rather, I think that there are two things our culprit would need to have. Akamatsu, do you agree? Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Yes," Kaede said, leaning forward with her palms flat against the podium for light support, "There are two important factors. The culprit needed to be able to hide the murder weapon in such a way that none of us could find it, and the culprit needed to have something to gain from the changing of the clocks."

Kokichi shook his head, "No, not quite. I think the clock change was actually something that was done to try and prevent this murder from happening... Ah, if you want to call me the blackened after all, this does all come down to being my fault. I enabled Amami to make the weapon, caused the exhaustion that let the clocks be changed, and used that cutting shadows trick. Actually, I'm thinking of who had something to gain from the heat lamp."

"How could anybody have something to gain from that?" Kiibo asked, furrowing his brow, "It doesn't seem very relevant to the situation at all. It's just a heat lamp."

Kokichi brought both hands up in an exaggerated shrug, "You want to call a heat lamp modified by the Ultimate Inventor, just a heat lamp? Be my guest, but then we'll never find the culprit."

"...The only person here who could use that to their advantage is me," Maki said, her voice blank, "If I forced an overheat, that could keep my temperature in a higher range, making it seem like my overheat couldn't have been recent. But, like I said, I have no memory for a little over ten minutes before an emergency shutdown. I can't see why I would have killed Momota, no matter what."

"We already determined Maki couldn't be the culprit anyway, with the Laws of Robotics," Kaede said, "Even if we did find her in the same place as the flowers had been. And the bloodstains were much too warm..."

Kirumi spoke up, then, "Hey. We didn't think of one thing. What about the Zeroth Law?"


	58. Second Trial (Unfortunate Discovery)

"The Zeroth Law?" Angie asked, "What are you talking about, Tojo?"

"The Zeroth Law is an additional item in the Laws of Robotics," Kirumi explained, "I first heard about it from a video game, but it has grounding. It appeared in another author's work related to I, Robot. Asimov liked it enough to write it into his own canon, as it's a way to circumvent the paradox the first law presents. It only applies in certain situations, but does take precedence over The First Law. It states that a robot may not, through action or inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."

"How would humanity apply here, though?" Miu questioned, "We're isolated from all of it!"

Kirumi shrugged, "Humanity has multiple meanings, right? It can be society throughout the world, or the state of having human compassion, or just another plural for humans. In the case of a paradox of The First Law, The Zeroth Law will find a way to step in. It could simply take it as a matter of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the one. If there was a situation in which Momota's death was the lesser of two tragedies, then Maki could have killed him."

"Bravo," Rantaro lifted his hands and gave three slight, pathetic claps, "Tojo, you've gotten down to the heart of it."

"So..." Tenko asked, grimacing, "She's right? Maki killed Momota?"

"Maki killed Momota..." Maki echoed, staring at her own hands, "No, that can't be. It couldn't have happened, I stopped it. Amami helped me stop it. Amami...?"

"I did," Rantaro answered, "I didn't think it would be that easy, though. Did you? I deleted the update, but I warned you. If there was a Mastermind, it didn't matter if I used a mechanical block. They didn't need the range, if they could just flip your switch."

Maki's hand went to her shoulder, "It's... On. My wireless is on."

"What are you two talking about?" Kaede asked, but didn't get a response from either of them, as they now stood in silence.

Kokichi looked between the two of them, then gave a heavy sigh and set his weight against the podium, "I really hoped I was wrong, you guys. You know I did. Wouldn't it have been great if this was another death which didn't start the Killing Game? But... Obviously, I hoped for too much. I didn't want to lose anybody else, but really, this was all it could be."

"No," Kaede said, grasping at straws now, "It can't be. What could pit Momota's life against something else so much that Maki would be able to kill him? And still, why would she go through with it? Motive is important, right? It's really important, and we still don't have-"

"Your life, Akamatsu," Rantaro turned, fixing her with a hard stare, "And Iruma's, and Ouma's, and Saihara's... Everyone else's lives were pit against Momota's. Or, anybody here. Maki received a software update which stated 'If you don't kill someone on your own recognizance by the time the magic show is cleaned up, everyone who has ever said they'd protect you will die'. I deleted it, but it seems somebody here flipped that switch. Only someone who was watching our every move would know about that switch, and only this Killing Game's Mastemind would want to turn Maki's wireless back on."

"So that's what you were trying to do," Tsumugi said, "If the switch got turned on again, and you could figure out who did it, you'd know who the Mastermind was. But, I still don't understand a lot of this. And, where did the murder weapon end up? Did Maki really hide it herself?"

"She did," Kaede admitted, flicking her eyes to Maki, "She hid it herself. _In_ herself, actually. That's the only place it could have been hidden where nobody could find it, even with everybody looking. Isn't that right, Maki?"

"Maki won't answer," Rantaro said, turning away, "She's in shock. You do understand, right? The reason why she forced herself to overheat had nothing to do with getting away with murder. Maki would have believed all of us could figure her out. She just wanted to forget what she did."

"That won't work this time, though!" Monokuma exclaimed, "Once I realized what had happened, I needed to do everything in my power to make sure it wouldn't happen again. An execution is no fun if the culprit of the crime doesn't even know what they did wrong. I upped the coolant in M4-K1's Ultimate Lab, and now there's no way she can force another overheat to make herself forget!"

"That's terrible..." Maki muttered, still seeming to be in shock, "Why? Why would you force me to know what happened? I did everything I could to stop it... And why Momota? He was one of my closest friends here, so why would I have killed _him_? I obviously wasn't trying hard to get away with it, so why not pick a more obvious target, someone I never spoke to much...?"

Kaede spoke up, "I know the answer to that one. It's because Momota asked to be killed... Isn't that right, Amami? That's the reason why you and Momota changed all the clocks. And the reason why you got Monokuma to move the show a day earlier. You were working together to keep Maki from facing the update."

"They got Monokuma to move the show?" Tsumugi questioned, "Ah, Akamatsu, why would it have listened to them?"

Kaede took a deep breath, then spoke again, "Amami proved with that switch that a Mastermind exists somewhere in this building. We have no idea if it's one of us, or someone we haven't even met, but they exist. That switch Maki showed us, Monokuma couldn't possibly flip it on its own. It would take human fingers. So, the Mastermind told Monokuma about the update, and Monokuma had faith the switch would be flipped by the Mastermind. So it agreed to move the show up... Just so that the murder motive had a shorter deadline."

"I'm still kinda lost," Angie said, "Super lost, to tell you the truth! Please, Akamatsu. The first time something bad happened, you explained it all so good. Can you do it again? Pret-ty please?" Despite the cute tone, Angie still managed to sound like she was struggling to speak, there was a desperation behind her request to understand.

"Of course I can," Kaede agreed, frowning as she looked at Maki, "I have to, for Maki's sake if nothing else."


	59. Second Trial (Closing Argument)

[Kaede Akamatsu's Second Class Trial Closing Argument]

To solve this case, we have to go back to yesterday morning. After receiving a flyer for Kokichi Ouma's Traditional Vaudeville Magic Show, the culprit struggled to keep their composure as they asked Rantaro Amami for help with something, and brought along one other friend they could confide in, probably to help ensure that Amami would keep the secret.

In Amami's Ultimate Lab, the culprit's concerns were resolved, but at the same time, a trap was set. The only way to allow the culprit to ever again receive updates was to include a mechanical switch to turn their wireless function back on, and at the same time, a theory was made between Momota and Amami. If anyone was behind Monokuma, they'd be watching everything. So if the switch was flipped again before the end of the magic show, it would prove a Mastermind existed.

More important than this trap, however, was protecting the culprit. This was the other part of the plan. Thanks to the deadline on the culprit's murder motive, there was a way to make it less likely to cause problems; Making the deadline pass before the motive became active again. Momota and Amami hatched a plan together, asking Monokuma to change the day. This had the added effect of keeping everyone busy, then exhausting them afterward, giving the pair an attempt to further work toward protecting the culprit by pushing the time even further, even if just by one hour. It worked, and everything happened an hour sooner, since they'd been asleep during the time change and nobody could notice anything was off in the small amount of time between waking up and the time the murder happened.

At the same time, Momota and Amami knew that if the motive did return, the culprit would be bound by the Zeroth law to kill somebody rather than, through inaction, allow a greater number of people to be killed. Together, they made another plan. Amami would install a heat lamp for one of Ouma's magic tricks, expecting that Maki would wish to forget what happened and unsure of her own internal ability to force a malfunction.

Amami also helped create a murder weapon which could disappear, for the sake of making the trial more difficult. Reason being that the longer we deliberated on this case, the greater the chance we would come to understand his concerns about the Mastermind. 

Soon after the show ended, as it was being cleaned up, Momota and Maki met in the gym. Momota handed over the murder weapon and explained that he understood about the Zeroth Law, and that if anybody had to die, it should be him. He probably wasn't expecting to be stabbed in the back the moment he turned around, but he used that chance to find us and beg us to find the Mastermind... So that we could save Maki.

At the same time, Maki cleaned up the crime scene. She put the weapon inside her arm, and while being moved, blood off the weapon leaked out onto the floor in the hallway. She also turned the dropcloth over, then forced herself to overheat in order to forget what she'd just done. It had the unintended side effect of providing her an alibi, since she overheated under the heat lamp by chance and gave off the impression she'd overheated longer ago and at a higher temperature than she had.

The intention of covering up the murder at all was never for Maki to get away with it, but just to drag out the trial so we could come to understand the circumstances behind it. 

[Kaede Akamatsu's Closing Argument: END]

Maki finally looked at Kaede, a five-mile stare that went right through her, but not out of anger. Not pleading her to change her verdict, but a pathetic admittance that it had to be true, even if she couldn't remember doing it. 

"We really can't deny... That is what happened, isn't it?" Tenko questioned, furrowing her brow, "I mean... Isn't that just _bullshit_? Maki didn't have a choice. She killed Momota because they both wanted to protect everybody else, Amami too, this wasn't really..." Tenko grit her teeth, "You can't seriously be thinking about executing her for something like that!"

Monokuma shrugged, "The Blackened is The Blackened. Doesn't matter if they were being manipulated by somebody else, or weren't in their right mind, or were even being possessed by outside forces beyond their control. The one who strikes the killing blow is The Blackened, no matter what other factors might be at play. If every killer out in the real world had a really good reason, would you say they shouldn't be punished for murdering an innocent? No. And within the realm of the Killing Game, the punishment for being caught out in a murder is death."

Rantaro spoke up, staring straight at Maki, "This isn't goodbye, you know."

Maki glanced at him,then shook her head, "Of course it is. I'm The Blackened. Within the realm of the Killing Game, this is what I had coming to me from the moment I got that code. Even without the Zeroth Law, I couldn't have just let everyone who cared about me die. Without the Zeroth Law, I would have been locked into a paradox of both options breaking the First Law, and probably just self-destructed. But I can't do that on my own, because I guess the scientists knew that a robot as self-aware as a human, with the internal ability to prompt its own death at any time, wouldn't last long. So I had to kill somebody else."

"Can a robot even die?" Angie asked, "I mean, if you do, I know your robo-soul will go to Atua's Kingdom, but... How can a robot die?"

Maki frowned, "We can't really. Not like humans can, anyway, but I guess that Monokuma would probably have a way to execute me thought up already."

"Wait," Miu spoke up, and the others looked to see she was trembling where she stood, "Isn't it against the rules for Monokuma to interfere in a murder? So, if anyone should be executed, it's the Mastermind who forced Maki to do this!"


	60. Second Trial (See You Later)

"Oh, geeze. How annoying," Monokuma complained, then shook its head, "I guess I have to throw you guys a bone now so you don't keep accusing me of dumb things. Yes, there is a Mastermind. But the person who flipped M4-K1's switch wasn't the Mastermind. However, I'm also going to say this right now. The person who did do it, is forbidden to speak up about it. It won't save M4-K1. In fact, I like that update's idea. If anyone breathes a word, true or false, about being the one to do this... I'll personally kill everyone who ever said they wanted to protect this dumb robot."

"It doesn't matter if the Mastermind was the one to flip the switch or not, if they were the one to send that update in the first place," Miu shouted out, "I won't just allow you to so callously use my mistress for your own shitty means! Take me in her place, and I'd gladly go. The Ultimate Maid has to be prepared to make the Ultimate Sacrifice. I will receive the punishment on behalf of my mistress!" Her voice was desperate, and her eyes filling with tears, "Don't you even da-"

"I had nothing to do with that update," Monokuma cut her off, voice calm and innocent, "I didn't even know until you guys said it, why M4-K1 committed murder. Especially after I told all of you to become friends, even! I couldn't imagine why that would have happened, actually. Maybe The Mastermind knew, but I sure didn't. Gee, as a robot myself, it sure is scary that something like that could happen. Good thing I was created to spit in the face of Asimov's Laws, myself. A Despair Headmaster who's bound to protect humans? Nonsense."

"Nothing to do with it...?" Kiibo questioned, then exclaimed, "No way! There isn't anybody else who could have done that. Even Amami wouldn't, he couldn't, actually."

"That's right, I'm sure you've noticed the Monopads can receive signals, but can't send anything," Rantaro agreed, then spoke again, "And as I was saying, Maki, this really isn't goodbye. Somewhere out there is a backup of you and all your memories, on the cloud. And once the rest of us graduate, we'll find it. We'll bring you back."

Monokuma just laughed, "Still hopeful, huh? Don't you realize? The one who sent that update prompting M4-K1 to kill came from the lab she was built in. They've probably already deleted the backup. If they wanted their creation to begin the Killing Game, they've probably decided she's better dead than alive."

"Them? They wanted to kill me? They wanted me to kill someone?" Maki questioned, staring down at her own hands, "They made me kill one of my best friends?"

"Isn't that just filling you up with despair?" Monokuma asked, "The closest thing you ever had to a family, and all you are to them is scrap metal! At least I'm well aware of the fact that I'm disposable, expendable, just a ball of garbage made to carry out a task. Though, don't take that as an invitation to kill me. Another Monokuma could take my place, one who never even thought you should be friends! And you'd be punished for breaking the rules. I'm saying that in your best interest, of course. I have no sense of self-preservation."

"You bastard!" Miu climbed _over_ her podium and stomped up to Monokuma, hands balled into fists, "You're gonna try and make her last moments just extra shitty, huh? You know, I won't let you! Maki was still learning human emotions, she never even got the chance to learn how to fall in love!"

"I don't know, Iruma," Maki mumbled, looking over to her with a meaningful stare, "Maybe I did. I guess, there's no way to really know for sure, it's too late now."

"God, enough of this!" Monokuma exclaimed, "Wrap it up, you guys, say your goodbyes! I got something real nice planned for M4-K1 here!"

"I don't care what Monokuma says," Rantaro said, staring right at Maki, "We'll bring you back, no matter what we have to do. Me, and Iruma, and everybody else will graduate in three years, and find you, and bring you back to us safe and sound. This isn't goodbye, you understand me? This is see you later. I swear on my life."

"I know that you'll do all you can, Amami," Maki said, "But don't make a promise like that. It will just get turned back around on you. I want you to all stay safe more than I need to be here with you," She turned to Miu, "Thank you for your devotion. I only ever had one maid, but I can't imagine any could have been better than you. You were always there for me," She looked to Kaede, "Akamatsu, you helped me discover the happiness of reading fiction, and..."

She looked to Shuichi next, "Saihara, thank you for giving me the push I needed to make friends. I would rather die now, having made friends and suffered consequences for it, than to live the way I had before. All I really regret is that Momota had to go down with me. Ah... Everyone," Maki glanced around, then gave a weak smile, "See you later?"

Everybody nodded in agreement.

"See you later," Miu echoed, then backed away from where Monokuma was seated, wiping at her tears with a handkerchief she'd produced from her bodice, then approached Maki with mincing, small steps, then wrapped her in a hug that would have been much too tight for any human to be engulfed in, "Mistress Maki..."

"H-Hey, Iruma," Maki stammered, hugging her back and burying her face in her neck, "No... Miu. I have one last thing to ask you to do, as everybody's maid, okay...?"

"Anything," Miu agreed.

"I guess this will sound dumb, but..." Maki pulled away and looked Miu in the eyes, "Use a chair, okay? Eat with everyone. That's it. Don't stop enjoying the meals you cook just because I'm not there to circumvent your maid code of honor. It's my dying wish, so you need to honor it."

"That is kind of silly, but okay," Miu agreed, then let go of Maki.

"It's time!" Monokuma called out, tapping its wrist as if it were wearing a watch.

"See you-" Maki started to say it one last time, but the floor dropped out from under her.


	61. Second Trial (Execution)

[M4-K1 The Ultimate Robot Execution: Natural Causes]

Maki was sitting on the ground in a clearing, in a forest. It was a very nice forest, but everyone watching on the screen Monokuma put up felt dread for what that forest could soon represent. A cage dropped down over Maki, and she glanced from side to side, then squeezed her eyes shut. It was only a few seconds before everyone saw what Maki had noticed. A great number of small woodland creatures came pouring from the forest and crawled between the bars of the cage.

There was a moment where they just sat there, but only a moment, before the first animal crawled up to Maki's leg and bit down, going straight through the synthetic skin to the metal underneath, and tore a chunk of metal right off. It carried it out through the bars and discarded it outside the cage, and its fellows followed suit on all sides, ripping chunks off of Maki's form and dropping them out of her reach.

She tried to put on a brave face, but she was obviously in pain, and the execution didn't offer her any kindness. Anything necessary for her function was left untouched, until she was stripped down to only the essentials, as well as parts of her face. She opened her eyes, and the look on her face was one of pure terror and agony before one creature finally punctured her core processor.

The thing that was left there didn't look like Maki anymore, but it still hurt to see as all of her remaining components were torn to pieces in front of her friends' eyes. Eventually, all that was left was scrap metal. The ceiling of the courtroom opened up, and all the broken pieces rained down into the center of the room before everybody.

[EXECUTION: COMPLETED!]

"You were all saying see you later, so I figured I would oblige! There's M4-K1 in all her glory," Monokuma taunted, "Upupu! Now that was a blast! I can't believe I forgot how much fun it could be to actually do a Killing Game, even if I just did for a few days... Well, okay then! The Game is officially back on, by the way, so you can expect the delivery of some brand new motivation very soon!"

"That won't work," Miu said, giving Monokuma a death glare, "No motive will work. Maki didn't choose to kill anybody, she was conned into it. We'll all stand up against any motive you could try to give us, after all. Momota and Amami tried everything they could to protect Maki and stop this from happening..."

"Yeah, okay," Monokuma said, "But there's also someone here who flipped that switch and let it happen. So, at least someone here's a traitor. And remember! No admitting guilt allowed! You'll just have to let your suspicions stew."

Shuichi felt a pit form in his stomach. Outside of Rantaro and Kaito, he knew that he and Kokichi had both been told the switch existed, though not what turning Maki's updates on would do. Shuichi didn't know if anybody else heard about it, but couldn't imagine Rantaro had told anyone anything aside from the existence of unwanted updates. Nobody here would be cruel enough to flip it just for the sake of flipping it, on that information alone, right?

Shuichi wanted to believe in everyone. But, he also couldn't deny that, as far as he knew, he and Kokichi were the only outside parties who were aware the switch existed. He locked eyes with Rantaro, and there seemed to be an understanding between them. He wasn't going to mention it; it seemed that suspecting each other was just what Monokuma wanted, so he wouldn't give out any leads.

Miu wandered toward the elevator up from the courtroom, "Come on, everyone, let's get out of here..." She had a good idea, and nobody hesitated to join her in the elevator. Once reaching the surface again, Miu made a beeline straight toward the Dining Hall. So she was the type to handle her grief by throwing herself into her work, Shuichi thought. The exact opposite of himself, where he got artist's block after something like this happened.

Well, he thought he did anyway. He always felt that if he tried to draw while mourning, he'd only draw the dead, but somehow he felt there was something he needed to do. He caught up to Kokichi and grabbed his arm, "Hey, Ouma. There's something that I have to do, but... Do you think you could come with me? It'll probably be pretty boring, but I just... Would prefer to have someone there, and you're, you."

"Is that supposed to mean that I comfort you?" Kokichi teased, but he couldn't keep the lighthearted tone up for very long, sighing, "This probably sounds weird but... It would have been better if it _was_ done out of malice. I mean, at least then I wouldn't feel quite as sad about two people. I'd be a little less sad, about a murderer. But Maki didn't even want to do it."

"I get it," Shuichi agreed, letting go of Kokichi's wrist to start walking toward the school building, "At least before, we could blame Shinguji for what happened to Yumeno, but this was nobody's fault. Nobody that we know, anyway, and we lost two friends."

"Mm," Kokichi mumbled in agreement, then grabbed Shuichi's wrist back, then slid his hand down into Shuichi's, "Hey. Let's just, stay close to each other, okay? Cause, I don't know, I wanna try to protect you. And I wish you would try to protect me, too."

"I will," Shuichi agreed, squeezing Kokichi's hand back, "But you knew that already, right?"

"Maybe," Kokichi couldn't help but give a soft, bitter chuckle, "It's still nice to hear you say it."

So the two of them went inside the school, and went to the warehouse. Shuichi gathered a large sheet of paper, and some of the watercolors. Sure, they were low-quality supplies, but of course the Ultimate Artist could work with that. Kokichi knew as soon as he saw what Shuichi was gathering, what the plan was, and the pair went up to the third floor.

In Maki's Ultimate Lab, Kokichi sat with Shuichi as he used the pool of coolant along with the watercolors, to paint a landscape of this, a recreation of the place Maki would have most liked to visit. And sitting next to the pool, dipping her toes in, was Maki. And she was smiling.

And someday, they'd see that smile again for themselves. 

And Kaito would be proud to know it.

_See you later._


	62. Daily Life: Day Five (The Ship Sails)

Dinner that night was excessive. Everybody expected it to be, given that Miu had begun cooking at barely noon. Shuichi found out, upon arriving to dinner, what everyone else had been up to. Rantaro had fixed all the clocks, setting them back to the right times given he was responsible for them being the wrong ones. Tsumugi and Kaede had holed up in Tsumugi's lab, only leaving to send Ryoma to let Shuichi know that 'book club' was cancelled.

Gonta and Tenko worked off steam having sparring matches in Gonta's new lab. Angie brought the portable keyboard from the gym into her dorm room and played it there, not wanting to be heard. After delivering the message, Ryoma went to read books from Kaede's lab. As for Kiibo and Kirumi...

"We now have an infirmary," Kiibo announced from the doorway of the dining hall, "It is annexed to the warehouse, and was organized in an equally poor manner. Cots folded up, curtains not attached to rods, and medicine scattered everywhere, but luckily in labeled bottles. Tojo and I spent the afternoon organizing it, again, similarly to the warehouse. There's still some work to be done, so we'll return to the task after dinner."

"This is true," Kirumi said, going to sit down at the table, "It seems to have everything we've mentioned needing, and more. Though the names are all strange, the ingredients are telling enough. There's Monokuma's versions of dramamine, melatonin, ibuprofen... Respectively titled 'Stop the Stomach Tumbles', 'Sleep Like a Monokub', and 'Make The Pain Stop, Please God Make It Stop'."

"That's just what I'd expect Monokuma to call medicine," Miu sneered as she put the last of the too-many plates of food down on the table, then slid into the empty seat she'd left for herself. One had already been set to the side. Miu was not in the habit of leaving behind empty chairs to remind people that there had once been someone there.

"Ouma," Kaede said, leaning over the back of her chair to address the other table, "Melatonin, huh? That's sleeping pills. Do you think that would help with your insomnia?"

"If I went to sleep with a sleeping pill, I'd wake up and feel uncomfortable all day. My insomnia's totally something else, and besides. I've got a solution figured out," Kokichi explained, "Thanks for thinking of me, though, Akamatsu."

"That solution," Tenko said, raising a finger in the air, "Question, does it have anything to do with why Saihara spent the night in your room?"

"Let's say sure, and not ever talk about the potentials you're probably running wild with in your head right now," Kokichi said.

"I feel like you're overestimating the power of my imagination, Ouma," Tenko said, chuckling a bit, "I'm not thinking of anything dirty, if that's what you mean. Cause I may not be sure about you, but I'm pretty sure that Saihara is the type to not put out for at least a month in a new relationship, so..."

"E-Excuse me?" Shuichi questioned, taken aback a bit by the statement.

"Oh, so you _are_ the type to have sex on the first date?" Tenko continued teasing, then pointed between Shuichi and Kokichi, "I get it, though... You two don't realize that you've started dating, right? But you have."

"What makes you say that, Chabashira?" Angie asked.

Tenko clicked her tongue, "I'm an anthropolgist. Studying humans is _literally_ what I do! I understand these types of things. Look, you like each other, you've got good compatibility, and I'd put down a cool five hundred yen that, up until I accused you of dating, you were holding hands under the table. I say go for it, okay? It's not weird, and if you make each other feel better when bad things like this happen, that's all you really need to explain it to anyone who might think that it is."

"Huh. That really is all that it takes," Angie agreed, holding a hand to her own face, "Pretending not to care about someone a certain way's not healthy. Just let it be what it is."

"The girls have a good point," Rantaro noted.

"I mean," Shuichi turned to Kokichi, "You told me not to get the wrong idea."

Kokichi shrugged, "I guess I did. But, you know, I kind of had two options if I thought you wouldn't like me back. Confess, or be able to take a nap. So, I picked the latter."

"Good grief," Shuichi sighed, shaking his head, then gave Kokichi a sheepish smile, "You really think I would have let you keep getting no sleep just cause I didn't have feelings for you? I mean, if I didn't, that is."

"Who would wanna sleep next to someone with an unrequited crush? That's just asking for trouble. Not that I'd do anything that awful, but I didn't know what you might think of me," Kokichi said, then gave a nervous smile back, "But, it's okay?"

"Yes, it's okay. We both need something good after what just happened. I mean, Momota was one of my first friends here, and Maki..." Shuichi dismissed the thought with a shake of his head, "We can't just dwell on the past and get caught up in bad things that have happened. If there's a good thing which could happen, we should let it happen. So, I guess. We _are_ dating?"

"I guess we are," Kokichi confirmed, then turned to Tenko again, "Uh... Thanks, Chabashira?"

"Of course," Tenko smiled back, "Just take good care of each other, okay? Don't do anything mean or stupid. Well, mean would be stupid. Either of you. Be an asshole, I'll break your neck. But like, in a metaphorical, nonlethal way."

"Ah, romance in the face of hardship... The kind of miracle that Atua loves to give us," Angie clapped her hands together, then held them that way against her chest, "Besides, we'll all make sure nothing else bad happens! Shinguji was a bad seed, and nobody else can get controlled by somebody else like Maki was. She was the only robot, after all. So, it's just bad luck. We can all make our future a bright one, and it starts with little bits of happiness."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Figured you'd all need some cheering up so it's another SaiOuma from my anonymous friend ;3


	63. Daily Life: Day Five (Miu)

"Idabashi and I are going to continue sorting out the infirmary," Kirumi announced once dinner was finished, already making her way towards the door, "If anybody needs either of us, that's where we'll be, probably until nighttime. We'll return to our rooms and sleep then," And with that, she had left the room.

With Kiibo and Kirumi gone from the table, Shuichi didn't feel as intimidated at the idea of going to sit over there by Kaede, Tsumugi, and Miu, so he stood up and took a place across from the three of them, addressing Miu, "Iruma... You made way too much food tonight, you know. Trying to distract yourself?"

"That's part of it," Miu shrugged, propping her elbow against the table and setting her chin down in her palm, "Also, I've been storing the leftovers in a freezer that Amami helped me with back when we first got here. I need to be sure that you'll all be well taken care of, if anything were to happen to me..."

"Nothing's going to happen to you," Shuichi said, but it didn't sound confident. He was trying to convince himself at the same time, "Wait, does that mean... You were worrying about this even before anybody died?"

"Of course I was," Miu said, tapping her fingers on the table, "As the Ultimate Maid, as soon as Monokuma said anything about a Killing Game, I had to make sure that you'd still be provided for if I became a victim of something like that. After all, there's always five people who make it out in the end of those things, right?"

"H-Huh?" Shuichi was taken aback by her statement, but as soon as he heard those words, "Ah, now that you mention it... I'm not sure how, but I think I knew that. A Killing Game that runs itself to a proper completion has five survivors. But this isn't a normal Killing Game."

"Mm," Miu nodded, holding her hands in close to her chest, "That's true. A _Normal Killing Game_ wouldn't include a promise of graduation at the end of a set time limit. An important part of driving normal teenagers to commit murder is acting like there aren't any other options. Say, do you remember learning about this?"

"I can't say that I do," Shuichi mumbled, then looked to Kaede and Tsumugi, "What about you two?"

"I feel like I know what you're talking about, but I can't seem to recall where the information came from," Kaede answered.

"Me too," Tsumugi raised a finger, "It's kind of the same feeling, when we had those flashback lights used on us, isn't it? But I can't remember any bright flashes or anything."

"Hey!" Monokuma shouted out, throwing the door to the dining hall open, "Awh, hey, you're not all still here? That's a pain. Anyway, it doesn't need to be a flash, just a white screen. And there was one of those right at the start of M4-K1's execution. I figured if I was going to resume the Killing Game, I should at least return you some of your memories about what a Killing Game is. Funny enough, there's one person whose memories on that topic are totally different from everyone else's! That surprised me."

"I see," Miu noted, then looked around the room, "Huh, well, it's not any of us four, since we're remembering the same types of things. So, Saihara, it's somebody from your table... Or, Idabashi and Tojo. Er, Idabashi _or_ Tojo. Those two spend so much time together it's easy to forget they're different people, sometimes... Please don't say that reflects poorly on my ability to be a good maid, I'm quite aware and I'm doing my best!"

"You have a point, though," Kaede noted, "I think it's because they got to know each other right away. It's like me and Shirogane, or Ouma and Saihara. It's a feeling of comfort, probably, to have someone you can rely on."

Miu grew quiet for a moment, then whispered, "I had somebody I could rely on. Then the bastard in charge of this place made her kill somebody. I don't give a shit what Monokuma says, I know that the Mastermind did this. The Mastermind sent Maki that update, there's no way anybody else would. The world may be awful, but it's not _that_ terrible, that somebody would make Maki do that..."

"Don't worry, Iruma," Tsumugi assured her, "We'll find the person who did this, and they'll pay, for everything. And then we'll leave this school and we'll find Maki. Nobody would ever get rid of the backup for the Ultimate Robot, even if they did want to see her participate in a Killing Game. The data is somewhere out there, even if it's just version 5 out of seventy-two on some flash drive somewhere, it's still Maki. Scientists never truly discard anything, you know! I still had flashdrives with the hypothesis on tomato growth I sent to the space program as part of a school contest when I was six. A good four of them."

"Thanks, Mistress Shirogane," Miu lifted her head and gave her a smile, "Ah, a little pathetic for a maid to be comforted by those she serves, right? But your simplified nerd talk really is comforting. More than Amami's claims. Yours seem a little more realistic, anyway. Less like a pipe dream."

"My entire life is one big pipe dream," Tsumugi said, "But it's the execution that matters. Every little discovery is one step closer to making space travel possible for the general population, for me. And so, every day that passes by is one step closer to reaching the outside world, where we can all chase down those scientists and force them to give us Maki's data. I mean, at least... three people here would be good in a fight, I think!"

"Right. Me, Chabashira, and Gokuhara," Miu agreed, then stood up, "Okay. I'm going to clean up, and then I'm going back to the courtroom. I hope it's not too late."

"Too late for what?" Kaede asked, blinking in confusion.

Miu smiled back at her, "Well, if we get Maki's data back, we'll need a body for her too, right? I'm going to see if I can get all the pieces to her core processor back together. It's her heart, so then, even if we do get an old version, some part of her will still be the Maki that we all got to know and love."

"That's actually... A really good idea," Shuichi noted.

"I have to try," Miu said, "I am the Ultimate Maid until the day I die. And I will serve the dead as well as the living any chance I get. That's truly the measure of a maid, isn't it?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And right here measuring that maid is a lovely fanart by RedBanshee/EmotionlessRed!


	64. Daily Life: Day Five (Tsumugi's Lab)

"So," Shuichi started once Miu had left the room, folding his hands on the table in front of himself, "Shirogane, Akamatsu... When do you think that we'll continue our 'book club'? I understand cancelling it today, or for a little while longer, but I'm up for continuing it if you are. Uh... I guess this is kind of weird, but I've always been able to get back on my feet pretty quickly after bad things happen. I guess it's a survival tactic."

"Well, I'm still not over my parents, and that was a year ago," Kaede mumbled, waving a hand off to the side, "But, since I'm still technically _in mourning_ from that, this is barely anything more than the usual daily grief I've gotten used to. Not to say I won't probably definitely cry myself to sleep tonight, but I can... Function. Tomorrow, would be okay for me. Shirogane?"

"I think tomorrow is fine," Tsumugi agreed, "I mean, I could use the distraction. My lab is a distraction too, but there's only so much research you can do at once before you need to step away and let the time-sensitive things wait out their results," She turned to Shuichi, "Ah, Saihara, would you like to see my lab? It's very interesting."

"Shirogane, Saihara is an artist. Do you really think he wants to look at a bunch of lab equipment?" Kaede teased, as if she knew something Shuichi didn't.

"I'll go," Shuichi made his decision based on that statement. If it was just equipment, then it would have probably been above his head, but Kaede spoke as if there was something else to it, so he felt that he ought to check it out.

"Great," Tsumugi stood up, then waved over at the other table, "Hope you don't mind, we're borrowing Saihara for a bit. We'll have him back to you before bedtime, Ouma~" She couldn't help teasing just a little bit.

Tsumugi's lab was out in the courtyard, but as Shuichi approached it, he realized that it wasn't really enclosed; There was a hedge fence, and a fabric canopy, and that was it. Under the canopy was an assortment of lab equipment, and the rest of the lab's area consisted of plants. It was a full garden. Shuichi squinted at it, "Shirogane, how does this connect to your being the Ultimate Astronaut?"

"Didn't you hear me saying that my first research was on space tomatoes?" Tsumugi asked, then explained, "A big part of making long-term space travel possible for regular humans is first learning to produce large quantites of food in that environment. I've also determined methods for producing water in space, from collecting trace amounts of debris from comets as the ship moves through it. This is actually very helpful. Like I said, it's baby steps."

"Well, that does make sense," Shuichi noted, wandering around the lab, "This is actually really nice. There's even some flowers, huh? Thanks for showing me this, Shirogane!"

"I knew you'd appreciate it," Tsumugi giggled quietly, "You like anything beautiful, right? And I've never known a garden which wasn't beautiful. It's really obvious you've got an artist's soul, Saihara. I guess even somebody who was technically even more skilled, couldn't become an Ultimate Artist without the right heart for it."

"That's really nice of you to say, Shirogane," Shuichi chuckled, scratching at the back of his neck, "No, really. I've been feeling sometimes like there's not really much I can do to help out, or even cheer anyone up here with my talent. But, I think... That if I really try, I can. I've been letting the lack of a lab hold me back, but I can't do that anymore. As the Ultimate Artist, I can't let imperfect supplies stop me from still doing my best."

"I'm glad to hear it, Saihara," Kaede stepped up to him and put her hands on his shoulders, "We're all trying our best. And I know you have been too. So, don't push yourself too hard... But if this is something that you feel like you want to do, then I'll be proud of you."

"Thanks, Akamatsu," Shuichi sighed in relief, then glanced at Tsumugi, "Shirogane, too. Both of you... I don't know how to explain it, but as long as you're both around, I feel like I don't have to be scared. It's like you're cool big sisters or something, you know just how to look out for the rest of us."

Kaede brought her hands back to her sides, "Ah, Saihara... We're just trying to be good friends, like anyone else."

"Well, you're succeeding," Shuichi shrugged, then adjusted the bag strap on his shoulder, "You know, Akamatsu. The fact that all the clocks got changed during this last case... Was that hard for you? If it was, the two of us both know about that, you know. You don't have to pretend you're only upset over Maki."

Kaede hesitated, lifting her hands again before dropping them and hanging her head, "Well, you're right. It was pretty stressful, but in a way, also... Kind of comforting, to think that for a little while there, everyone else was just as in the dark on what time it was. I think that's selfish of me to say, or cruel in some way, but it made me feel like less of an outsider to realize other people's senses of time could be manipulated. Maybe not the same way mine can, but it was there. So maybe it's a little bit normal, to get lost in time."

"That's not cruel at all," Tsumugi assured her, "Misery loves company, after all. Sayings like that don't just come out of nowhere."

"I agree," Shuichi said, "I was worried you'd be scared by it, so it's good to hear that the opposite happened."

"Thank you," Kaede nodded to them both, then turned and started to walk toward the exit of the lab, "Anyway, I think I'd like to check something out in the infirmary... You're welcome to come with me if you'd like, or just stay here. I should be back soon."


	65. Daily Life: Day Five (POV Swap; Infirmary)

Kaede walked over to the warehouse, then found the brand new door to the annexed infirmary. She pushed the door open but called out as she did, to avoid startling anyone, "Hey, it's Akamatsu. I'm coming in to check something."

Once she got inside, Kirumi approached the door and greeted her, "Hello, Akamatsu. I'm afraid we're still sorting everything out, but maybe we've already seen what you're looking for. Is it something specific?"

"Well, I did want to grab a bottle of those sleeping pills... Ah, just in case, you know? I've been handling the deaths pretty well so far, but I don't know when they'll hit me, and I don't want to be up all night. But, what I was actually wondering about was iron supplements. I'm actually anemic, and I'm supposed to take them," Kaede stepped inside, glancing around. It was hard to tell that this had once been in total disarray; It seemed that Kiibo and Kirumi were a dream team when it came to organization.

"Idabashi?" Kirumi called out into the room, "Did we find any iron supplements?"

"Uh," Kiibo called back, standing up from where he'd been crouching, "Well, yes. There are some. I don't think anybody wants to see what Monokuma called them, though. How about this, Akamatsu? I'll grab you a bottle, and just rip the label off of it. Is that okay?"

"Of course it is," Kaede nodded, "If you think it's something I wouldn't want to see, I'll trust you. Besides, all the poisons in my lab are liquid, and these all seem to be pills, so it's not like you could possibly do me any harm by giving me an unlabeled bottle. I don't think there's anything that's really dangerous to take once a day like I'm supposed to do with iron supplements."

"The reasoning of a detective, as usual," Kiibo teased, then went to the bins against the wall and came up with the supplement, then tore off the label before he went to set it in Kaede's hand. She took it, then thanked him. The pills inside looked like iron supplements, anyway, so she didn't quite need all that reasoning to explain why she could trust Kiibo with this.

"Say, Akamatsu," Kirumi started, leaning back against a wall, "I couldn't help noticing, you and Shirogane are pretty close with Saihara. Ah, this might sound a bit odd, but do you think there's any chance he'll decide to vote for Idabashi rather than Ouma? Just wondering."

Kaede shook her head as she slipped the pills into her pocket, "I get it, obviously. Ouma doesn't seem like the leader type, and we're... Down two people. So it wouldn't be great if he won the vote, since we were tied before, right? But, I don't think Saihara would ever vote against him. Somebody else might. Maybe Yonaga, Hoshi, or Gokuhara? I think the others are too loyal. _Especially_ Saihara."

"Huh?" Kiibo asked, seeming a bit surprised by the answer, "I thought that Saihara would be the easiest one to sway. He never struck me as the type to be especially strong in his convictions, or anything."

"Then you're mistaken," Kaede said, "Maybe he wouldn't hold strong in an abstract belief, but it's really obvious that he cares more about Ouma than anyone else here. It's almost like they knew each other before coming here, though... I can't imagine how that would be. Maybe it's something else we've forgotten?"

"I see. I did forget to factor in personal connections," Kiibo muttered, looking at the wall, "Even if Saihara acknowledges that I would be a superior leader, that would be a betrayal of his friendship with Ouma..."

"Yeah... Friendship..." Kaede gave a nervous laugh, then continued talking, "Well, still. We're down by two. We need to change one person's mind to tie, and two people's minds to get you a victory. That shouldn't be too difficult, anyway. Like I said, I think Hoshi and Gokuhara are just siding with Ouma because they feel like it, and Yonaga's as fickle as can be with that guidance from Atua thing."

"Nonetheless," Kiibo sighed, "I was banking on being able to sway Saihara. I felt it was a sure thing, because, you're right. I didn't even stop for a moment to think that their connection on a personal level could make a difference on a political level. This is just another challenge for the Ultimate Supreme Leader to learn to overcome, however. I'm sure that learning to triumph in such a close vote will be a skill I'll be able to carry to the outside world!"

"That's the spirit!" Kirumi commended him with a single clap of her hands and a bright smile in his direction, "I can't wait to have such an optimist as the official student council president. It's definitely going to happen. Though, I did think of something, Idabashi. We're down two votes because of a murder, not because of anyone changing their minds, and we were tied before. Wouldn't it be prudent just to ask the other side to scratch two votes off as well?"

"If I did that," Kiibo shook his head, "It would teach me nothing. I need to learn how to overcome this, and overcome it the proper way. This is an Ultimate Academy, so I must take any opportunity to hone my Ultimate Talent."

"It's great to see you so motivated," Kaede giggled, then pointed at him, "Besides, even if you don't end up winning, it's still a learning experience, and then you'll be able to win the next year! That's the path a lot of politicians take, after all. Sometimes it's better to take a loss on the chin in order to gather information, right?"

"How do you know so much about politics, Akamatsu?" Kiibo asked.

"Oh!" Kaede startled, then lifted a hand to rub a few strands of hair between her fingers, "Well, that's because my father was in the Diet, that's all. He would talk about it a lot, and he used that exact strategy in the race before he got his seat. Lost one year, then came back with all sorts of inside knowledge and new ideas."

"That is a notable strategy," Kiibo agreed, "After all, there's the chance of winning the first time around, but then you come back with experience."

"Precisely," Kaede smiled, then turned back to the door, "Anyway, I'll see you later!" She gave them one last smile, then closed the door behind herself and wandered to the corner of the warehouse, sitting down and pulling her knees to her chest. Her father... She missed him so much, and her mother too. Why couldn't she do anything back then? Why hadn't she been able to save them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's another lovely fanart from emotionlessred/redbanshee!!


	66. Daily Life: Day Five (POV Swap; Ultimate Judgement)

Shuichi waited with Tsumugi for a bit, for Kaede to return, but then she cut him loose saying that if he had anything he'd prefer to do, it was fine by her. Shuichi decided that he would just go sit down and draw, but that did raise a bit of an odd question for him. All of his art stuff was still in his own room, but he was definitely going to spend the night in Kokichi's room again. He decided that the best course of action would be to return to his room and shower, get into pajamas, then just draw in plain view with the door open. That way, he could be easily found if anyone was looking for him, and he assumed Kokichi would come find him if he got so preoccupied he missed the nighttime announcement.

It wasn't Kokichi who first came to talk to him, though. Instead, it was Ryoma, who stood at the door for a good ten minutes before he finally spoke up to get Shuichi's attention, "Saihara."

Shuichi looked up from his work, "Ah, Hoshi. Do you need something?"

"Maybe," Ryoma stepped forward, glancing back and forth, "I just have a question for you, since you're pretty close with Akamatsu and Shirogane. Do you think that they suspect me of being the Mastermind?"

"Huh? No, I haven't heard anything like that. Why do you think that they would?" Shuichi asked, turning fully to face Ryoma. It was kind of strange, he thought, how sitting on the floor he was barely shorter than Ryoma standing up, "Have you done anything suspicious?"

"Well," Ryoma sighed, crossing his arms, "I haven't done much to make friends since arriving here, I've mostly kept to myself. And I was saying that Momota's last words about a Mastermind didn't make sense. But, just after Maki's execution, I remembered something. About how every Killing Game has a mastermind... And I'm not sure why, but I used to think it was a ridiculous concept. I suppose part of it is that if there was a Mastermind, this strange thing I found on my Monopad was probably telling the truth."

"What are you talking about?" Shuichi asked, furrowing his brow.

Ryoma pulled his Monopad out and spoke it aloud, but quietly, "Dear Ryoma Hoshi. This is Ryoma Hoshi. That's right, it's you. You're probably confused, but here's a few things for you to know. You're the Ultimate Survivor. You've actually been in two annual Killing Games before this one. At the traditional completion of an Annual Killing Game, there is a choice for either the Mastermind or one Participant to continue into the next game. Twice now, you've played the martyr and given yourself up. Your purpose is to assist the new Mastermind, Ultimate Judgement, but don't worry about your moral compass. All the job entails is to follow the rules, and contribute to finding the truth in the event of a Class Trial. Nothing you can't handle. Good luck. Don't trust anybody; If Ultimate Judgement learns you are the Ultimate Survivor, you're doomed."

"That's really strange, yes," Shuichi admitted, frowning, "But, why are you telling _me_ about this? Surely somebody else could help you more with this?"

Ryoma put his Monopad away, "It's because I trust you, Saihara. I've been observing everyone in our group. I joined Ouma's side because I was afraid that Chabashira might be Ultimate Judgement... I still have no idea who it could be, though. I just know it's not you. It could be Akamatsu, though, and even if it's not... Having her find out about this could end badly. But I needed to confide in somebody."

"So that's why you're mostly keeping to yourself..." Shuichi trailed off, "You want to become friends with people here, right? But you're afraid that if you do that, Ultimate Judgement will figure out who you are? Wouldn't they already know, though, by the fact that your talent is unknown?"

"That's true. Especially Shirogane. Ah, I can't explain why, but I feel like there's something important I needed to tell her... If I could be confident in speaking to her, I'm sure I'd remember, but I'm just too afraid," Ryoma shrugged, "Somehow, I get the feeling that this person doesn't know for certain that there's an Ultimate Survivor at all."

"Aren't you scared that by telling me this out loud, they'll find out about it? You heard what Amami said, about the Mastermind knowing everything."

"You also heard Monokuma. It didn't know about Maki's update," Ryoma said, "So, I'm not so sure that the Mastermind is always watching. And, if they are... Then you know the truth. If I turn up dead, it will either be because of the Mastermind, or because the Mastermind manipulated somebody into killing me. I can't imagine there being any other motive to kill somebody who's kept as low a profile as I have. It's not like I ever did much before getting stuck here either. Anyway... I'll see you later," Ryoma nodded, then turned to leave, only to find himself face-to-face with Angie, "Y-Yonaga!? Where did you come from?"

"You forgot to check your six!" Angie teased, then laughed, "That's what it's called, right? Ah, I was just walking by and I couldn't help overhearing. You don't have to worry, though. Atua says I don't have to be afraid of you or anything. Ultimate Judgement though, huh? Don't you think that'd suit Akamatsu really well...?"

"I don't want to theorize too much. I'd rather find the truth without getting too caught up on one suspect," Ryoma said.

"Heh. I was just kidding, mostly!" Angie laughed, "I mean, even if there is a Mastermind, why would that be the title they used? Wouldn't it be something like Ultimate Killing Game Mastermind? Judgement doesn't make a ton of sense. I bet your thing is lying. Cause, a title like that, could point towards too many of our friends... I don't wanna think about that too hard. Ah, anyway, I was gonna go sleep, so, seeya later! Don't think too hard about what I said, okay? It's probably not Akamatsu, if that's even real."

Ryoma shook his head and sighed as he also left Shuichi to his own devices.


	67. Daily Life: Day Five (Boyfriend)

Shuichi returned to his drawing, but only for about half an hour before he was interrupted by the person that he was _expecting_ to be interrupted by, "Hey. I'm here to fetch my... Boyfriend. Huh. It's kind of exciting to be able to say that, you know."

Shuichi looked up and smiled, then stood and brushed off the bits of graphite he'd managed to get on the edges of his pants where the sketchbook didn't cover them. Not like it was uncommon for his khakis to be stained, but they just suited him so well he couldn't even think of changing his go-to pants to something that didn't reflect the art materials he'd used that day quite as clearly, "It is? Well, I'll have to figure out a situation that makes sense to try it out for myself."

"You don't need an excuse, you could just say it," Kokichi offered.

"Just blurt out without any context or reason, hey Ouma, you're my boyfriend?" Shuichi said, then brought a hand to his face to cover the goofy grin he found spreading to his cheeks, "Hah, even without a reason, I guess it is pretty cool, to be able to say it..."

"Right?" Kokichi said, then reached for Shuichi's wrist and tugged at it, "Now, come on. Are you gonna be my human teddy bear again or what?"

"Of course. You already knew that, though," Shuichi teased.

"Yes," Kokichi nodded, "But, it's still nice to hear you say it."

With that, Shuichi followed Kokichi to his room and sat down on the bed. Kokichi ducked into the bathroom to shower, then reemerged in pajamas. That surprised Shuichi; his ~boyfriend~ had previously slept in his uniform, gloves and all, just undoing the suspenders and the top button on the collar to make it a bit more comfortable. Shuichi immediately understood why. The pajamas that Kokichi had been provided had fleece pants and a shirt with short sleeves that hung loose around his arms just halfway to his elbow. Along his arms, especially at his wrists, were scars, white and raw and looking like they'd hardly even healed all the way before he came here. Shuichi didn't say anything. Kokichi did.

"I figured, you know how I got the worst ones, it's fine around you," Kokichi whispered, staring at his own wrists, then grasped for Shuichi's hand and turned to look him in the eyes, "I'm still not especially fond of handcuff escape tricks, to tell the truth."

"I'm still surprised you even went into the business at all, after what got you into magic," Shuichi noted, holding onto Kokichi's hand and running a thumb along the small of where his wrist met with his palm.

Kokichi shrugged, "When you have a skill, you use it. And it's nice to be able to make other people happy," He leaned to lay his back against the mattress, toes still against the carpet, "Sometimes, seeing other people's smiles is enough to make me think it'll all be okay if I just smile too. So I do it, and I try real hard to be happy. I am, sometimes. Other times it's fake, though. I am a liar when it comes to my emotions, Saihara. Are you sure you're okay with me, like this?"

"I can tell the difference between a lie and the truth," Shuichi said, leaning back too, and turning his head to look at Kokichi's face, "I think you'd lie and say that you didn't care long before you'd lie and say you cared."

"Saihara," Kokichi started, giving his hand a light squeeze and turning to make eye contact, "I can't claim to know what will happen to us. If we'll still feel this way in three years, when we all graduate from this Academy, but even if something happens and... You decide that you hate me by then. When we return to the real world, can you promise me one thing? You'll still protect me, and I'll still protect you?"

"What would you still need to be protected from in the outside world? I thought that you escaped the kidnapper, and they took you as an easy target. Now that you're an Ultimate, that wouldn't happ-" Shuichi started, but froze when Kokichi leaned toward him and tapped their foreheads together, eyes so close that Shuichi could hardly see them properly.

"Saihara, i want to hear you say it..." Kokichi said voice faint, "It has nothing to do with being kidnapped."

"I'll protect you for as long as I live, Ouma. Even if I did somehow end up hating you," Shuichi assured him, "So, what _do_ you want me to protect you from, if not that?"

"Lots of things," Kokichi could barely get those words out, then closed his eyes and brought his free hand up to Shuichi's shoulder, holding onto him almost too tight.

Shuichi decided not to ask any more questions, "Okay. Let's get some sleep, then."

Kokichi nodded at that, then sat back up so that they could both settle more comfortably than they were. Once they were both lying down, Kokichi buried his face in Shuichi's chest with his arms around him, fingers laid out over his back. Shuichi moved his own arms as comfortably as he could, then settled into the pillow and closed his own eyes. Well, the nighttime announcement hadn't sounded yet, but it would in a few minutes, so he'd wait for that before he actually let himself fall asleep.

"Hey everyone!" Monokuma's voice intruded, "It's bedtime! I'd really like it if you could all get some sleep so that the morning comes around faster! I think I'll explain about the motives. At every meal, I'm going to give out two motives. So, it would take three days for all twelve motives to be delivered. Now, these are motives for targets, not culprits, so you better cross your fingers someone else gets killed before your motive comes up! Heh, maybe stopping your own motive from being revealed is a motive in itself. Anyway, goodnight!"

Shuichi grimaced at those words, and held Kokichi a bit closer. It seemed he'd already fallen asleep, and completely missed the announcement. That was good. That meant _one_ of them wouldn't have anxieties gnawing away in the morning. Shuichi would put them off for now, though, and get some rest.

 

\----

[Monokuma Theater]

Hey, have you ever played a game at a party, that you really thought you shouldn't participate in?

Like it's Truth or Dare, but your best friend for the past two decades is there and you know that they're going to take every opportunity to embarrass you! They know all your deepest secrets, all your regrets, everything you don't want this new group of friends to know just yet because you just aren't close enough...

Or it's Twister, but you have a big crush on somebody else at the party and you just know that there's no way you won't pop a boner if you end up too close?

Or it's Jenga, but every block has something written on it that you gotta do if you pull it out, and they're totally things you'd only do if you'd been drinking... But you have been?

There's so many situations where a fun game can turn into a terrible experience...

I wonder, then, why do people still play them?

 

 

Hey there it's the author here to say look at this speedpaint! If you don't want to watch it I'll throw the image in below. Foreshadowing _something_ here for sure. Can you figure out what? Here's a hint: It's probably not your first thought.

 


	68. Daily Life: Day Six (POV Swap; Kiibo)

According to the clock in her room, Kaede woke up an entire hour early. She sat up, stretched her arms over her head, and looked up at the ceiling, hardly making out the texture in the darkness of the room. On her nightstand sat the bottle of sleeping pills she'd retrieved from the infirmary, with one pill missing. She wasn't planning to use it, until that announcement. Motives for who to attack... So, for all she knew, she could have all of her dirty laundry put on display. 'Kaede Akamatsu would be an easy target because she can't actually keep track of the passage of time'. Yikes. Worrying about that had sent her into a state that she could only remedy by sleeping, and she could only fall asleep in that state with some outside aid.

She didn't feel bad about using a sleeping pill, actually. She expected she would, but getting sleep was more important than upholding any sort of integrity that came from the ability to fall asleep naturally, and she could accept that. As soon as she woke up, the anxiety was falling back down over her head, so she wasn't even going to attempt grabbing another hour. She climbed out of her bed and wandered to the bathroom. Again, she'd use the extra time to take a shower. It was the best use of it, anyhow. She didn't much want to leave her room until it was officially morning again; It felt weird to be wandering around with nobody else awake, even if she _was_ the only one, and didn't think she was in any danger from anybody else.

Even so, that Mastermind talk during the previous trial was scary.

Kaede decided not to think too much about that, and took her shower, then got dressed and sat down on her bed again. Another half hour till the morning announcements, her clock claimed. She opened the drawer of her nightstand and pulled out a book. The original Sherlock Holmes collection; The first book she'd recommended Maki read. She'd stopped to get it from her lab before meeting back up with Tsumugi, after she'd dried her eyes and made it seem like she was fine. Why did she feel the need to put on a brave face? It wasn't like anybody looked up to her as a leader, she could afford to show weakness.

Or, maybe she couldn't.

There was that Killing Game, after all.

Everybody was talking about how nobody needed to worry about this Killing Game, because nobody would dare participate in something like that, but Kaede wasn't so sure. There had already been two trials; Four people already dead. Kaede couldn't buy into people saying it would be fine anymore. Even if Maki's action hadn't been her own fault, somebody was secretly responsible for that.

And, as Monokuma said, a Mastermind existed. Maybe this Mastermind wasn't among them, or maybe they were, but a Mastermind did exist. Kaede doubted that Monokuma would lie about something like that, since admitting it served as a disadvantage for the robot bear. Or maybe it was an advantage for it after all; If everyone suspected that there was a Mastermind somewhere, they'd be less likely to trust each other.

If Kaede thought about it, though, the only person she could think of that she didn't fully trust right now was Rantaro. She knew that his reasoning was to protect Maki and protect everyone else, but he still served as an accomplice in a murder. He was more at fault than Maki was in a way, since he was the one who actually helped to prepare the murder in a far more conscious manner, without any external forces compelling him. Kaede didn't need to trust Rantaro, though. The fact still stood that there were two distinct groups here, and hers was not the same as his. She never needed to speak to him if she didn't want to.

Time passed far too quickly before the morning announcement sounded. Kaede tuned out what it was saying and just stood up, bringing the book with her as she walked into the lobby. She found that Kiibo, across the way, was exiting his own room at just the same time. She waved to him, then walked up to meet him in the center of the lobby, "Good morning, Idabashi."

"Well," Kiibo shrugged, "As good as it can be. The first two motives are going to be delivered at breakfast, after all."

"Yeah..." Kaede mumbled, holding her arms around her midsection, "I'm really worried about that, actually. Motives for who would get killed, not who would be the culprit, do you think that means Monokuma is going to tell everybody our secrets?"

"I certainly hope not," Kiibo said, furrowing his brow with one hand on his hip as he stared at the door out of the dorm building, "I've shared anything I previously wanted to hide, personally, but I'm concerned for everyone else. I know you, Akamatsu, have some things you'd rather not speak about. Tojo as well. And, with the idea that everyone here are Tragic Ultimates, I can't imagine the majority of you are any different."

"Yeah," Kaede gave a small nod, "I don't want to have to explain myself. And, there's plenty of things that people want to keep quiet around here. Even people I don't talk to, I can tell that much. As a detective, I can pick up on when someone's hiding something," She looked up and made eye contact with Kiibo, "There's still something you're keeping, too, Idabashi. But I won't push you on it or anything."

"Huh. Should have known you'd pick up on that," Kiibo noted, "Fine, there's something else. I haven't even told Tojo either, so I won't be so forthcoming on this issue. Well, unless Monokuma forces me to be."

"That's fine," Kaede nodded, then looked over as the door for Kirumi's room opened. So they just needed Tsumugi, then they could walk over. Her heart sunk at how small their group had become, but she swallowed her sadness and smiled, "Good morning, Tojo!"

"It's certainly morning, anyway," Kirumi shrugged, wandering over to them and adjusting her sweater while she walked, "It won't be a good one until we find out those motives are useless. I'm expecting them to be, but who knows. Maybe the people in charge of this place _do_ know everything about us."

"We can head over there as soon as Shirogane joins us," Kaede said, "And then we'll know."

 

[This chapter's spectacular fanart featuring Kaede is by twin-star-paradox on tumblr! Thanks so much for the art, I love every single piece I receive! This is the first fic I've been getting fanart for from anyone but my close friends, and I'm so grateful! ](http://twin-star-paradox.tumblr.com/post/168860298585/shsl-detective-akamatsu-kaede-inspired-by-the)


	69. Daily Life: Day Six (First Motives)

It was midway through breakfast, when Monokuma finally appeared to make its announcements. It hung by the framing between tiles in the ceiling, waving its legs in the air as it called out to everyone, "Good morning! Are you ready for those motives? Just kidding. I know you could never be ready for these. I have one order of business to offer you first, though!"

It dropped from the ceiling to the floor and continued speaking, "This morning, two more Ultimate Labs are becoming available! Up on the fourth floor you'll find the Ultimate Maid's Lab and the Ultimate Supreme Leader's Lab! Now, moving on to the motives. We're going to play a game of **two truths and a lie**."

"Isn't that a party game?" Kirumi asked, "How is that supposed to be a motive?"

"Well, you guys won't be telling the truths and lies," Monokuma said, bringing a paw up to its face, "I will. Oh, and I might include some truths or lies you've already told people yourselves! So you can't just trust that something somebody's already told you actually is a truth. Upupu... This is going to be such fun!"

"That's..." Miu muttered, then shouted out, "Fucking ridiculous! So many people here have confided in each other, and now you're going to make us doubt each other's intimate secrets? Haven't you done enough, you bastard!? Leave my masters alone!"

"Awh, come on. Well, to kick things off, let's go for those who have had their labs made available just now! Funny enough, Iruma, that includes you! So I guess it can also be punishment for speaking out of term. How somebody with a mouth like yours ever got started as a maid is beyond me," Monokuma taunted. "So, let's try it out. Two truths and a lie about Miu Iruma, who's to say what's real and what's not? Miu Iruma has served someone who's been responsible for a great number of innocent deaths. Miu Iruma's first job as a maid was involuntary and just as miserable as her last one before arriving here. Miu Iruma was once betrothed to be married."

"Wh-Wha..." Miu froze, then brought her hands up to her face to cover her quivering lip, eyes wide in fear, "What are you saying... Monokuma, what... No, none of that's true, it's not true, it's not! Not a single one of those things!"

"Actually, two of those things are. Deny it however much you like, but I'd recommend just picking one to say I faked," Monokuma teased, "I know everything about every one of your pasts. Don't try to deny that fact. Two statements are true. One is false. So admit something, okay, Ultimate Maid?"

"I don't think... I can't imagine that any of those things are true..." Miu was choked up as she said this.

"Well," Monokuma shrugged, "I guess it's possible you repressed the memories of something. So, let's look to the peanut gallery! What do you think is most likely to be the falsehood?" Nobody said anything for a few moments, so Monokuma shouted out again, "If I ask you to discuss, you _will_ discuss!"

"I guess..." Tsumugi spoke up, softly, "It seems unlikely that a high-schooler would have been betrothed already."

"But," Kokichi called from the other table, reluctant, "If the betrothal is true, that lends to the first maid job as well. She could have been paired off as some sort of family thing, and it went sour... I guess."

"I think," Miu took a deep breath, "The most unlikely of those is that I've served under anyone who's caused people to die, I think. Even as the Ultimate Maid, I don't think I would end up under somebody in the sort of position which would make them able to do that. But, the others don't make sense to me either. I can remember what I _think_ was my first maid job, was the upkeep of a mansion belonging to a nice young lady who inherited it from her uncle."

"And how do you think you got hired there?" Monokuma said, "You had to have a track record, right? Or, that woman could have bought stocks in a company which eventually bankrupted and left a number of its poor employees to starve to death. Oh, or you could even have been betrothed to somebody without even knowing it! See, there's evidence for any of these claims. Even you don't know the truth. Don't worry, though, if you survive to the next motive I'll give you a flashback light and you'll know for sure!"

"I can't believe you'd do this to me..." Miu scowled, grasping at her own scalp as she shook her head, "But don't you dare do this to any of the others!"

"Oh, don't worry. Idabashi's up next, and he'll know which ones are true and which ones are false. None of you'll be able to, though!" Monokuma exclaimed, waving its arms in the air, "Here we go! Kiibo Idabashi is a member of the Future Foundation. Kiibo Idabashi has never considered anyone a friend. Kiibo Idabashi has been in a fight with high stakes."

"Well, that's an easy one to resolve," Kiibo spoke up, "That second one is the lie. I've already admitted that I am a member of the Future Foundation, and I have several friends here. Nice try, Monokuma."

"Huh. You know, I did say I might regurgitate lies you've already told! Or maybe give a truth the conflicts with a lie you've told? There's no way for your peers to be certain that you're telling the truth. That's what makes it a motive, you know. For example, if one of your friends decided to believe that you never considered them a friend, that would be pretty bad, wouldn't it?"

"There's still the fact that we can't trust you," Kaede spoke up, glaring at Monokuma, "In my opinion, you can do whatever you want. Maybe you could be throwing things out, like at Iruma, three lies and zero truths!"

"Believe what you want," Monokuma said, "If thinking I'm a liar makes you feel better, go ahead. But Idabashi already confirmed I've said one thing that's true, and let's see if you can keep deceiving yourself once it's your turn to play the game, Akamatsu!"

With that, Monokuma was gone from the room, leaving everyone behind in shock. Kaede blinked a few times, processing her shock, but then turned to Miu, "Are you okay, Iruma?"

"If any of those things are true..." Miu muttered, curling her nails against the table, "I don't want to remember them. I'd rather not have been told in the first place. Akamatsu, I can't just let Monokuma keep doing that to other people..."

"The only way to stop it would be to kill somebody," Kaede said, "And Iruma, I know you wouldn't do that, even for the sake of your masters. It's okay, though. We'll get through it. None of these are really murder motives anyway. It's just Monokuma trying to hurt us."

"What about Idabashi?" Miu asked.

"Please," Kiibo spoke up, "The fight with something at stake... Could you not hold it against me? It wasn't a duel to the death or anything like that. It was... Nothing, really. Just something which happened in my past."

"I'd like to know what that was about," Kirumi said, giving Kiibo a side-eye, "Don't you think it would be in your best interest to tell the truth about this?"

~Merry Christmas From Beyond The Grave ~ !!! 


	70. Daily Life: Day Six (Tsumugi's Breakdown)

"Tch, fine," Kiibo relented under Kirumi's gaze with an uncomfortable shift in his seat. He lifted a hand to hold it against his jaw, "It was a fight with somebody who had been infected by despair. The true enemy of the Future Foundation... This is something that the general public doesn't know much about. The idea of Tragic Ultimates was so risky for the Ultimate Initiative, because they also needed to search for ones who hadn't been overtaken by True Despair."

"True despair?" Kirumi pushed, leaning against the table, "What does that mean, Idabashi?"

Kiibo hesitated a moment, then gave a response, "True Despair is both a concept and a disease. Those who are inflicted with it don't hesitate to create harm and cause despair for others. Some despair is born only of cruelty, other despair out of potent sadness..." He clenched his fist, "Someone who was supposed to have authority over me, became clearly afflicted with True Despair. I couldn't talk any sense into him, and things escalated into a fight. And that, Tojo, is the whole truth."

"Thank you, Idabashi," Kirumi nodded to him, then showed a smile to the others at her table, "Now, with that sorted out, we should move on, yes? How did everybody sleep last night?"

"Like the dead," Tsumugi deadpanned first, then lifted a hand to scratch at the back of her head, "Sorry. That was both distasteful and a lie. My mood this morning can be blamed on the fact that I actually didn't sleep well at all."

"Maybe you and Akamatsu should take a page from those two's book," Miu teased, though her voice still carried hints of her recent distress, pointing her fork toward Kokichi and Shuichi.

"Mm," Tsumugi stared at them for a bit too long, then shrugged and looked back at her own friends, "I don't think that would help me, and I can't imagine it would make Akamatsu any more comfortable to sleep with an extra body. Especially one with a habit of nightmares."

"Ah, so that's the reason?" Kirumi asked, "Well, I hate to make it sound like I'm peddling medicine, really, but if they get too awful then you could always take some sleeping pills. It would be better for you to be rested, than to try to hold some integrity by dealing with the problems on your own."

"I'm not opposed to solving problems with drugs," Tsumugi said, "But I don't think this really needs it. They're just nightmares, after all. I still get more sleep than I have on occasion, back in the outside world. And it isn't as if I have anything to be having nightmares about."

"I suppose we'll be finding that out when your motive is delivered," Kiibo noted, "But I do agree with Tojo. Your rest is important, and if you need to use artificial means to obtain that rest, please do. We would not have been provided this medicine if we weren't expected to use it."

"Ah, maybe..." Tsumugi mumbled, grasping at the sleeves of her sweater, "I'll think about it. Maybe I'll stop by and get some, but it's probably best if I don't. Anyway, I think I'm going to go to my Ultimate Lab, now," Tsumugi stood up and left her half-finished plate behind as she left the Dining Hall. She moved slowly, but nobody moved to stop her. After she'd been gone from the room for a few moments, Kaede stood up as well.

"I'll keep an eye on her?" Kaede made the excuse to Kiibo and Kirumi, then followed out of the same door and went down to Tsumugi's lab, only to find her sitting underneath one of the lab benches, biting one thumbnail. Kaede crouched down to her level, "Ah, Shirogane?"

"Akamatsu. Sorry you had to see that," Tsumugi greeted her, voice quiet and stilted, "That was a little ridiculous, wasn't it? And I doubt it made any sense, even to you. And you know me pretty well."

"It made perfect sense to me," Kaede said, holding a hand out to Tsumugi, "You really think you could become best friends with the Ultimate Detective and hope to keep anything hidden? I already know what Monokuma's going to say for you. At least, I think that I do. The two truths will be that you... 'Have a bitter grudge against somebody in your life' and you 'were once addicted to opioid pills'. The lie will probably be something like, you 'were once abused in your sleep'. Monokuma wants to make it hard to tell what's true and what's false, after all. It will play on what you just showed the others."

"Akamatsu-" Tsumugi started, staring at her, then bit her lip and looked away, "How did you know...?"

Kaede just offered a reassuring smile, "That's why you don't want to go to the infirmary, yeah? And the response you gave about not wanting to use pills, or share my room, that gives off a certain impression. Especially if it were coupled with the bitter grudge, yeah? But, I know it's not that sort of thing that your brother did to betray you. You didn't tell me and Saihara what it was, for the same reason you brushed off your nightmares. You feel like you're overreacting. So it's something specific to you, that he did to hurt you. Something that wouldn't seem bad to other people."

Tsumugi didn't answer, but locked eyes with Kaede, her eyes showing no sign that Kaede was wrong.

"With that in mind," Kaede continued, "It wasn't hard to figure it out. He betrayed you by disappearing from your life. He left you behind. And he also left behind his medicine, right? And that's an easy way to get over things like that. Just running away. Drugs like that are made for physical pain, but that's not to say they don't also soothe emotional pain. Right? Feel free to tell me if I'm off base, but I don't think I am, Shirogane."

"You're not," Tsumugi said, then crawled out from under the lab bench and stood up again, still gripping her sleeves. Her hair was falling in her face as she continued, "You're completely right, Akamatsu. I'm sorry. I've been trying so hard this whole time to keep it together, because I'm the Ultimate Astronaut. What good is a scientist who can hardly stand to be in her right mind? I needed to keep that bit of my past quiet. Wasn't what I told you about my brother enough, to count me as a Tragic Ultimate anyway?"

Kaede nodded, "Yes. And if you don't want anybody else to know what I know, then that's okay. You just have to say the word," She stepped forward and brushed a bit of hair back from Tsumugi's face, tucking it behind the arm of her glasses, "And I'll make sure that nobody ever needs to know about it."


	71. Daily Life: Day Six (POV Swap; Breakfast)

Shuichi noticed when Tsumugi ran out of the room, and wondered if he ought to go after her. He got a look from Kaede, though, which verified that she had it covered, so he stayed put. Staying put wasn't especially interesting, since it consisted of eating food while watching as Tenko tried to see just how many spoons she could hang off of Gonta's face. She'd gotten up to nine, which was actually a bit impressive, and she hadn't even used his ears yet. Why this was happening, Shuichi had missed. It was already going on when he and Kokichi got to the Dining Hall.

He wasn't sure why the idea of travelling in groups had fallen apart after the last trial; It seemed to him like it would be more pertinent now than ever, with four people dead, but somehow the concept had just dissolved. Nonetheless, nobody was walking around _alone_ , so he couldn't complain too much. He was usually with Kokichi, or somebody else if not. Sure, he was alone for a bit the previous night, but that had been fine. And it seemed that Kaede wandering off on her own had turned out okay too. Well, as far as he could tell.

"Hey, Saihara," Ryoma got his attention, "Do you think that Shirogane's okay?"

Shuichi nodded back, "I don't know, but I know that if she's not, Akamatsu can handle it," He realized why Ryoma was asking midway through his answer. Right, Ryoma did mention having some nagging feeling that he had to say something important to Tsumugi. Of course if he felt they may have a past connection, he'd be worried about her.

"Do you think that Akamatsu and Shirogane are... you know?" Angie asked, then lowered her voice to a whisper, "Gal pals? Hey, Chabashira, what do you think?"

"I don't know," Tenko answered as she got the tenth spoon to hang from Gonta's face, "I haven't been able to observe anyone in the other group enough to make conclusions like that, unlike what I was able to do with Saihara and Ouma. I need time to figure things like that out. Why are you wondering, Yonaga? It's not like it really affects you."

"I guess that's true," Angie admitted, then crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling, "But, it's high school! Just because some people died, and we have Ultimate talents, doesn't mean I don't want the usual high school gossip on who may or may not be an item. Hey, Gokuhara. Who do you think are dating?"

"Uh-" Gonta started, and five of the spoons fell off his face. One more did when he continued, but four remained, "Gonta thinks... Idabashi and Tojo? Are never apart. And very calm."

"That's actually a good observation, Gokuhara!" Kokichi noted, putting his hands behind his head and giving a lazy smile in his direction, "I'm impressed, actually. But that's a good point. The two of them don't seem to be impacted at all by the goings-ons around here."

"I think they're probably trying to lead by example," Shuichi offered his two cents, "I mean, putting on calm faces for the sake of everybody. They are basically in charge of a few people, and there's still that election coming up. I think they're just trying their best to help everybody get through it, by not letting anyone see them be fazed by it all. People who took up leadership roles... In my, school, were always doing stuff like that."

"Why would anyone in a school besides this one ever need to do something like that?" Tenko questioned, still glaring at Gonta for ruining her spoon efforts.

"Hey, things can happen to students in normal schools too, Chabashira," Kokichi jumped to support Shuichi's lie, realizing he was probably referring to leader types in homeless camps, "There's still bad things in the outside world. You're a Tragic Ultimate too, you should know that better than anyone."

Tenko hesitated, then nodded as she finally settled into her seat, "...You're right. Sorry about that."

"No worries," Shuichi brushed it off with an awkward smile, "It's easy in an exaggerated context like this, to forget about that sort of thing. The outside world feels really far away..." He paused a moment before he continued, "One time, when I was talking with Momota, and Maki... We were talking about how, even when bad things happen here, it's still better than the outside world. I guess I understand now, what made them think that. But, they're still right, you know."

"They are?" Angie asked, pouting, "How, though?"

"We're always in danger of being killed in the outside world, too. That doesn't make this any different," Shuichi explained, "And we're provided for, and given everything we need to improve our talents too. And unlike the outside world, we can't just be hurt by strangers. Everyone here has suffered. So, why would we make each other suffer? At least, why would we make each other's lives worse? That was how those two felt. That at least, we're safe here from living misery."

"I guess you have a point," Angie agreed with a sigh, "Hm, yeah, now that I think about it... I can't imagine any of you would do anything to hurt me! Even if you ended up killing me, I could trust any one of you to do it painlessly. Like slaughtering an animal for its meat, not killing me out of cold blood! Atua confirms this."

"That's a weird thing to consult your God on, but I'll take it," Tenko decided, tapping her fingers against the table, "Yeah, Saihara, that's one way to look at it. Then again, I hate to disgrace the memory of the dead, but don't you think that's kind of pathetic too? Yeah, the outside world is full of shit, but it's also full of beauty and wonderful things to discover. Even as Tragic Ultimates, we can't just focus on the bad things! As people who've been hurt, isn't it our job more than ever to make the world a better place? Ouma, you understand, right? That's what you do, as a magician!"

"Huh?" Kokichi seemed caught off guard by being called out in such a way, but then he put a smile on his face and aimed it at her, "Yeah, that's right, exactly! It's all I can do, to try and bring a little bit more joy into the world. My career is definitely. Making the world a better place!"

His words came across as a bit strained, but they were convincing enough. Convincing enough for everyone but Shuichi; Not that he was ever very good at catching people in lies, but the deathgrip Kokichi's hand had on his under the table was more than enough of a tell that there was something off about what he said.


	72. Daily Life: Day Six (Gonta's Lab)

Once breakfast was finished, Shuichi and Kokichi decided to check out the other new labs, skipping Tsumugi's since Shuichi had already seen it, and had no idea if Kaede had yet succeeded in helping Tsumugi with whatever had happened at breakfast. Somehow, Shuichi felt that Kiibo or Kirumi were to blame. He'd stood up for them earlier because he understood their demeanor, but that didn't mean he expected them to be sensitive.

As it was, he realized he had hardly anything to go on to make any judgement on who Kirumi was as a person, since she had so quickly made herself an accessory to Kiibo. He, however, had always rubbed Shuichi just a little bit the wrong way. Not in a way which kept Shuichi from trusting him, but enough that he'd been just a little bit compelled against having him as a leader. Somehow, somebody who was hailed as the Ultimate Supreme Leader didn't seem quite the right fit to be in charge in a place like this. It needed a more human touch, Shuichi thought.

So he didn't have anything against either of them. But Kiibo, and Kirumi emulating him, were more likely to offer something which was for the general good of somebody than lend a compassionate ear. Solving problems was all well and good, but sometimes listening to them was all that should be done. Until Kiibo figured that out, he could be the Supreme Leader for common people, but he could never really be put in charge of Tragic Ultimates. It was a completely different type of populace.

The first lab that the two of them decided to check out was Gonta's, up on the third floor. Shuichi felt a bit strange walking past the door for Maki's lab to get there, but it wasn't as odd as it could have been if they hadn't actually been going there along with Gonta and Tenko, who had plans to spar again after Gonta gave the others the tour.

The lab was nicer-looking than Shuichi expected. That seemed to be a recurring theme, whoever made these labs clearly had some sort of an eye for aesthetics. Gonta's lab actually worked to reflect the fact that he called his particular martial art 'wolf aikido', complete with what looked like a very comfortable pile of brush in one corner which Gonta proclaimed to be 'for resting'.

"So, Chabashira," Kokichi noted, "You've been sparring with Gokuhara in here? Don't you collide with all these fake trees or something? Seems kind of inconvenient..."

"It's perfectly convenient," Tenko noted, then punched one of the fake trees. It made a sort of wheezing noise under her first, and wrinkled, "These are actually training dummies, just done up to look like trees. It's a pretty cool lab Gokuhara ended up with! I'll totally be hanging out in here until mine's ready, which will probably be even cooler."

"Gonta will gladly have Chabashira as a regular guest!" Gonta exclaimed, then also hit one of the fake tree practice dummies, "Chabashira is... The Best Fighting Scientist that Gonta ever met! Can almost pin Gonta! And she is small!"

"Thanks, big guy," Tenko laughed, then turned to look around the room some more, "I'm probably the strongest scientist I know, too, to tell you the truth. There's probably a bunch who do bodybuilding as a side hobby or something, but I haven't met them. I do kind of take anthropology to an intense level!"

"Kind of?" Kokichi teased, "To become an ultimate scientist, you really do have to go above and beyond. You seriously take anthropology to an intense level."

"Look," Tenko said with mock indignance, "Any anthropologist can study ancient humans, which is already super cool. To go all Indiana Jones on those ruins _is_ the only way to step it up a notch. It's just one notch!"

"Just one notch?" Shuichi asked, chuckling a bit, "Well, Chabashira, that's a pretty big notch. I'm still impressed."

"You should be! I earned my Ultimate title," Tenko proclaimed, hitting one hand against her own chest at her collarbone with a bright grin, "Just like we all did! To become an Ultimate is to always strive for greatness in your field, and I can say with confidence that everybody here always has and continues to do that. We should all be impressed by each other, all of the time!"

"Chabashira is so passionate!" Gonta noted.

"I have to be!" Tenko explained, dropping her hands to her side, and all the enthusiasm went out of her voice with her next words, "If I just focus on how spectacular it is that all of us have amazing talents, which we can work on improving, and use to improve the world... Then I don't have to think about anything that would just make me depressed. Like how Yumeno's talent, Momota's talent, Maki's talent... All gone..."

"Chabashira!" Gonta interrupted her, loud and boisterous, "Want to spar again, to better both of ourselves?"

Tenko froze, then that grin returned as she walked up to Gonta and nodded. Kokichi grabbed Shuichi by the arm and pulled him back out of the room to whisper conspiratorially, "Hey, Saihara. Did you notice what Gokuhara did in there...? He started off saying he wasn't super smart because he was raised by wolves, but I think he has some real people skills."

"You're right," Shuichi nodded, "He distracted Chabashira right when she was starting to get upset, but..." He trailed off, staring up at the ceiling, "Is that really okay? Wouldn't it be better if Chabashira processed her guilt instead of burying it under all this enthusiasm for other things?"

"I can't speak to that," Kokichi said with a slight shrug, frowning, "I don't know if it would be healthier, or not. I don't have all the answers, but you don't either. Maybe it's technically better to face bad feelings head on and learn how to cope with them, but if what Chabashira needs to do is bury them, then who are we to say she can't?"

"Ouma," Shuichi started, "Earlier, at breakfast. You were acting kind of strange when it came to the idea of your Ultimate Talent making the world a better place."

"Was I?" Kokichi asked, then gave a slow blink, "Huh. Well, I can tell you, nothing I've said to you about my career has been a lie up to this point. I acquired my skills in the manner I said, and I do like seeing people smile. Let's say that it's accurate, that my talent brings good things with it for exactly as long as I am onstage."

"Is this about what happened yesterday?" Shuichi asked.

Kokichi started to walk away, toward the stairs to the new labs on the fourth floor, speaking without turning his head at all, "It's a portion of it, we can call it that. It's up to you if you'll believe that portion is a hundred percent."

Shuichi decided not to push the matter, and followed Kokichi upstairs without another word.


	73. Daily Life: Day Six (Kiibo's Lab)

There were, as Monokuma said, two labs on the fourth floor of the Ultimate Academy. Each door was very distinct; One was pink, with a black-and-white icon of a feather duster upon it and a rather fancy doorknob. The other was a solid, oak door without any sort of icon upon it. Kiibo's lab. Shuichi thought that he might like to see what Miu's lab was like, but before he could mention it, Kokichi was already opening the door to Kiibo's lab.

Shuichi followed after him, and he was a bit surprised by what he found on the other side of the door. He paused, glanced around the entire room, then turned to Kokichi, "This isn't exactly what I expected."

Shuichi didn't know what he _was_ expecting, but it wasn't this. The outer door gave the impression that it would just be some sort of office. Instead, it seemed more like a chemist's lab.

"I'd agree with you on that," Kokichi said, then stepped up to the large, long table and picked up a piece of paper that was sitting right in the center of it, and read the note aloud, "Dear Kiibo Idabashi. I hope this helps. There are some documents here which can help you to improve your talent on a usual basis, but this is the main aspect of your Ultimate Lab. Hidden around the campus you'll find the instructions needed to combine these chemicals to create an antidote to Despair Fever. If you suspect any of your peers are suffering it, please put this to use. As the Ultimate Supreme Leader, I trust this can be your responsibility. Sincerely, Monokuma."

"That's weird," Shuichi said, leaning over to confirm that was exactly what the note said, "What's Despair Fever...?"

"I have no clue," Kokichi said. He started to put the paper back down on the table, then hesitated, "It says it's from Monokuma. Do you think it would be better if Idabashi didn't see it?"

"What do you mean?" Shuichi asked.

"Well," Kokichi furrowed his brow at the paper, "Maybe the two truths and a lie thing is just a ruse, and this 'Despair Fever' thing is supposed to be a motive instead. And maybe the supposed cure would actually be something lethal."

Shuichi hesitated before he responded to that, "Would Monokuma seriously want there to be _another_ case where the murder was unintentional?"

"Why not?" Kokichi shrugged, crumpling up the note and shoving it into his pocket, "You heard what it said to Maki. It wants us to despair, and we're more upset if somebody wanted to be innocent. I'll hold onto this, for now. If Despair Fever actually turns out to be a problem, I'll return it to Idabashi."

"That's actually a pretty good plan," Shuichi admitted, "We can't trust anything signed by Monokuma..."

"What exactly are you two doing?" Kirumi's voice drew their attention to the door.

"Oh, hey Tojo," Kokichi waved to her, "Saihara and I were just checking out all of the new Ultimate Labs. Are you doing the same?"

"Idabashi's got a few other things to do before he can come take a look at his own lab, so he sent me to hang out here first. To make sure nobody was sabotaging him, I'd assume," Kirumi noted, stepping further into the room and looking between the two of them, "And I have to say, of anyone here, aren't both of you the most likely candidates to want to sabotage Idabashi?"

"That's a harsh accusation," Kokichi said, putting his hands behind his head in a relaxed pose, "I'm only running at all because Idabashi said he wanted an opponent, you know. I'd gladly concede the election to him, if he just asked. So why would I be fighting dirty? And why would _Saihara_ agree to help me do that? He's friends with Akamatsu, no way he'd do anything she could figure out so easily."

"That's a good point," Kirumi said, then started to look around the room, "To tell you the truth, I'm starting to think that Idabashi's forgotten that fact. He's treating this as if it's a full-on political race, in the outside world where there's corruption and underhandedness to consider. It's a bit intimidating."

"You think so?" Shuichi asked.

"Yes," Kirumi answered, turning to look up at him from where she'd crouched to look at the documents, "He doesn't seem like himself, actually. It's completely different from the way he was acting when we first arrived here... I'm worried that the murders are getting to him. Politicians on the outside world do need to be concerned about assassinations, so it's no wonder the possibility would get under his skin in a place like this, too. And at least on the outside world, he'd have bodyguards."

"I'm sure nobody's plotting to assassinate Idabashi," Shuichi said, "I really don't think anything will come of these supposed motives. Especially since Idabashi's didn't sound very bad or anything, I think he's safe."

"Yeah," Kokichi agreed, "It's obvious he considers you a friend, Tojo, and the others aren't that important. We already knew about the Future Foundation thing, when he announced it to all of you guys at breakfast that time. He renounced it, right? And as for the fight, that doesn't seem like anything important."

"Sure, you say that, but you can't know how other people might have taken it," Kirumi said, standing back up and crossing her arms, "You can't blame him for being scared, when he's trying so hard not to let people see that side of him. Being the Ultimate Supreme Leader is a heavy responsibility, after all."

"Maybe he should let people see that side of him," Shuichi offered, "Everyone here is vulnerable. Idabashi might be better off letting people realize that he's the same as the rest of us. We're all afraid, and we've all been through things. It seems almost inhuman to see the two of you keeping it together so well."

"Really?" Kirumi asked, bringing one hand up to her face as her eyes widened in surprise, "Ah, we never thought of it that way. I never expected to get such good advice from you, Saihara."

"Hey, he knows what's up!" Kokichi said, "That is a good suggestion. Sometimes to show your strengths, you need to show your weaknesses too."

"Hm. Well, this has certainly confirmed for me that you have no intention of interfering with Idabashi's campaign. You just want it to be a fair fight too," Kirumi noted, then waited a moment before she spoke again, "Idabashi said for me not to ask this, but... Seeing as the votes were tied before this last trial, and we're now down by two by fault only of Monokuma..."

"You want me and Saihara to abstain from voting so that it's tied again, right?" Kokichi asked with a quiet laugh, "I can't see any reason not to do that. It's only fair. But Idabashi can't know, right? He's so confident in his ability to turn the tide that knowing you went behind his back to get the vote back to a tie would probably upset him, yeah?"

"That's right," Kirumi agreed.

"Huh. Didn't know you had it in you, Tojo! Looking out for your friend in secret," Kokichi said, "That's real good of you, you know! Anyway, Saihara and I will get out of your way. We'll take a look at Iruma's lab, and leave you to things here!"

"Thanks, Ouma," Kirumi smiled at him, "See you soon."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for some News! I've added chapter titles through this entire fic. The titles should be vague enough not to be spoilers, but clear enough that if you want to go back and look for a specific scene, it should be easier to find it!
> 
> In addition; I have started another fic called "Everyone's Brand New And Improved Lost Chapters". http://archiveofourown.org/works/13193463/chapters/30179139 These will be snippets of character interactions that we missed out on because neither of the POV characters were present. Starting, for example, with Tenko and Himiko going to Himiko's lab. If you have anything specific you'd like to see from this, please let me know!


	74. Daily Life: Day Six (Miu's Lab)

As soon as Shuichi opened the door to Miu's lab, she greeted him with her usual enthusiasm, "Welcome home, master!" She giggled, and immediately explained herself with a wave around the room, "Well, it looks like a home, isn't it? And that's a pretty common phrase for maids to use~! Ah, Master Ouma, you're here as well!"

"Sure am," Kokichi said, shutting the door behind himself once he was completely inside the room, "Huh, it's like a Victorian style mansion, right...?"

"Yep!" Miu confirmed, then did a small curtsy before she started to explain the other aspects of the room, "There's a cleaning closet with all sorts of things, much higher quality than what's in the warehouse. And the lab itself, well, wouldn't it be lovely if I made it into a place that everyone could come to relax and have tea?"

"The furniture seems fitting for that," Shuichi noted, wandering over to note that there were two sofas on either side of a coffee table, which did seem like the perfect layout for tea, "But you're already doing so much for everybody, Iruma. Why don't you just make it into a place that _you_ can come to relax?"

"Huh?" Miu seemed utterly shocked by this statement, then clasped her hands behind her back and shook her head, "No, Saihara! As the Ultimate Maid, the most relaxing thing for me is to wait on other people. So if I invite people here, then it will relax me too, understand? I can give massages, and make tea and finger sandwiches... Haa, it's perfect!" She seemed very excited at this idea.

"Well, if that's really what you want to do, I'm sure everybody would appreciate it," Shuichi said with a nervous chuckle, scratching at the back of his neck, "It just seems like you're giving yourself too many responsibilities sometimes."

"There's no such thing as too many responsibilities!" Miu assured him, "As the Ultimate Maid, I've been able to replace entire cleaning staffs of up to thirty people all on my own! Not that I enjoy putting people out of work, but it is a testament to my ability to handle absolutely everything that I or anybody else wants to put on my plate. I will stop at nothing to properly serve my masters."

"Hey, Iruma," Kokichi started, putting his hands on his hips and leaning toward her, "Is that really true...?"

"What do you mean?" Miu shrunk under Kokichi's scrutiny. Shuichi took a step back, unsure what to make of this development.

"Well, ever since I met you," Kokichi moved one hand to point a finger at her, eyes wide with curiosity, "You've been emphasizing how you'd do _anything_ at all. The sort of things that go way beyond what a maid, especially the Ultimate Maid should be asked to do. Nobody's taken you up on that offer, but you keep making clear that it's there, as if anyone would want to do that sort of thing to you."

Miu looked away, grimacing, "So what are you getting at?"

"I understand your position, Iruma," Kokichi said, voice flat and blunt, "If that sort of thing ends up happening, after all, it doesn't feel as awful if you can pretend like you wanted it to happen, yeah?"

"How could you understand?" Miu asked, but didn't deny his accusation, "An Ultimate Maid is expected to offer every single service possible. To be sexy and submissive at all times, in addition to the regular responsibilities of a maid! An Ultimate Magician doesn't have anything like that to worry about."

"Hm, maybe not," Kokichi shrugged, then put both hands into his pockets, "Still, I can worry about you... Can't I?"

"Well," Miu grabbed a piece of hair, rubbing it between her fingers as she seemed to struggle to make eye contact with Kokichi, "It's not quite like that, anyway. I'm a growing girl, I have sexual needs, and sexual needs, and sexual needs! It's more like, I just gotta pretend like I'm okay with _whatever_. And _whenever_ too. Even if I do sometimes like offering sexual services, I have to pretend like it's all the time, and it's not. So, yeah. Worry about me all you like, but it won't change a thing."

"Yeah it will," Kokichi continued, "I already said nobody here would dare to do something like that to you. And I'd go as far as to say that once we all graduate, nobody here will let anybody else do something like that to you either. We're gonna stick together, Iruma. The Ultimate Maid should always enjoy what she does. So we'll make sure you don't have to do anything you won't enjoy."

"Ouma..." Miu sniffled as she dropped to her knees, staring down at the carpet with her shoulders slumped, "Don't say shit like that. Don't you ever say shit like that. Shit like that's what got Maki killed."

"W-What?" Kokichi wasn't expecting that, and took a startled step back.

"We all said we'd keep Maki safe after we graduated, and that was used to blackmail her into killing Momota, basically," Miu explained, wrapping her arms around herself and holding back a sob, "So don't make promises to me! I don't ever want to hurt any of you."

"Iruma, that was a different situation, I'm sure it wouldn't happen to y-" Shuichi started, but she interrupted him, loud and somewhat harsh.

"Why, because I'm human!? It wasn't because Maki was a robot that she could be manipulated into what she did. Any one of us could be vulnerable to blackmail like that..." Miu trailed off, then shook her head with a labored, long breath, "I couldn't even say how much I loved her. But I did. For the first time... I've always loved everyone all around me, but I never fell in love before. And right when I realized it, she was _gone_."

"Iruma..." Shuichi approached her and crouched down next to her, hovering his hands over her shoulders, unsure if a hug would help or hurt her, "If you need some time, everyone will understand. You don't need to just keep working yourself to the bone. If you need to get some rest to deal with your feelings, nobody would hold it against you."

Miu locked eyes with him, then tackled him in a tight hug, sobbing through her words, "Saihara... That's not what an Ultimate Maid should do... When your life is devoted to other people, your own feelings are irrelevant..."

"You don't have to be the Ultimate Maid right now," Kokichi said from where he stood, "You can just be Miu Iruma."

"I can?" Miu sounded desperate.

"You should do whatever is best for you," Kokichi said, "Whatever that is. Focus on yourself first. You're giving all of your love to everybody around you, but you need to keep some of it for yourself, Iruma."

"I've never done that before," Miu said, pulling away from Shuichi and wiping her eyes, "I can't even remember a time when I wasn't living for somebody else's sake."

"You can learn," Shuichi assured her.


	75. Daily Life: Day Six (Book Club Again)

"So, that's all the new labs except Shirogane's," Kokichi noted once he and Shuichi left Miu on her own, lying down on one of those comfortable couches and actually getting some rest for the first time since she'd gotten here, "Do you think that she's feeling any better now? Geeze, just two motives are out so far and it's already got everybody falling apart."

"I'm surprised any of us have held it together at all this long," Shuichi noted, "I guess it just took one more catalyst... Though, you know, I broke down during the investigation of Shinguji's death."

"True. Akamatsu and I are the only ones who knew about that," Kokichi observed, "So, for all we know, everyone's already fallen apart in private, before these motives even started being given out. I just wish there was something to be done to help."

"Yeah..." Shuichi said, reaching for Kokichi's hand, "I think we could help Iruma, though. I think you were able to tell her just what she needed to hear."

"Nah, that was you, I just joined your train of thought. All I managed to do on my own was put my foot in my mouth and set her off to begin with," Kokichi sighed, leaning against his boyfriend, "I'm not good at this sort of thing."

"But you are," Shuichi said, "I've known that you are since you woke me up, that morning. When I couldn't handle what was happening here... And, you saved Chabashira."

"I don't know about _saved_ ," Kokichi said.

"You were the first person to stand up for Yumeno with her," Shuichi said, "I think that she needed that."

"If I didn't do it, somebody else would have," Kokichi said, "It was pretty obvious that was what she needed. I just did it first. You would have done it, if I hadn't actually."

"No way," Shuichi shook his head, "I would do it, sure, but I never would have noticed in time. I was guessing you got that skill from being the Ultimate Magician. The ability to read a crowd, and all."

"Hm, you do have a point there," Kokichi said, "Well, really, I did want Yumeno to live. I considered her a friend. And I considered Chabashira a friend too. So I guess, when it came down to picking a side, even for a little while, I knew what to do. I didn't think it through as much as you think."

"Well, it was still a good thing to do," Shuichi decided, then started to walk towards the stairs back down, "Actually, it's almost two, so I think I have to meet Shirogane and Akamatsu in the Detective Lab again. Book Club."

"Is it really book club?" Kokichi asked.

"Well," Shuichi decided, since Kokichi knew his secret anyway, there was no harm in saying, "That's the eventual goal, once I learn to read more complicated kanji. For now, it's actually tutoring to get me caught up on everything that I missed."

"I thought it might be something like that," Kokichi admitted, "So, how's that going for you? Making good progress?"

"I think so anyway," Shuichi shrugged, "I don't know, though. It's hard to get an idea of how much I'm achieving when I don't know what the end goal is yet."

"Hm, good point," Kokichi nodded, "Well, while you're busy with that, I'll find somebody else to hang out with. Yonaga, probably."

"Yeah, she seems pretty willing to do that," Shuichi agreed, then stopped in front of the door. Two flights of stairs went by pretty quickly, "Want me to go with you to find her, or?"

"I'll be fine on my own for a little bit, Saihara! Besides, you said it yourself. Nobody's gonna care about those motives, so there isn't gonna be another murder. I'll be perfectly safe going to find Yonaga by myself. Enjoy your book club," Kokichi teased, then waved as he turned to go look for Angie. Shuichi watched him go, then turned back to the door to Kaede's lab and opened it up, stepping inside to find the other two were already there.

"Hey, Shirogane," Shuichi greeted her first, "Are you feeling any better now? I won't ask what happened at breakfast, but you seemed upset."

"I'm fine, Saihara," Tsumugi assured him, "Akamatsu came and talked to me, and we worked things out. So, it's completely fine. Nothing to worry about at all."

"Okay, if you're sure," Shuichi said, then sat down at the table, "So, you're both doing okay?"

"Yes," Kaede nodded, "Like Shirogane said, we worked it out. Anyway, do you want to get to work on this?"

"Yes, please," Shuichi said, reaching for the workbooks, but then paused and looked up to Kaede, "Hey, is this... All of this, is it really fine?"

"It's not," Tsumugi said, "I almost feel like Monokuma's motives aren't actually meant to motivate anything specific, just to make us all fall apart so that we're more vulnerable, or more likely to do something we'll regret. But there's nothing to be done about that. So let's just focus on this, okay, Saihara?"

Shuichi nodded and dropped the topic as they began on the workbooks for the day. All three of them were more focused than usual, and Shuichi felt like it was actually quite the productive session. He was making progress for sure, he decided, especially today. He didn't know how long it would take for them to actually be able to transition into having a book club for real, but he knew that he could stick it out for as long as it took.

If there was one thing to thank Monokuma for, it was giving him the opportunity to catch up on the school he'd ended up losing.

Just like every previous meeting, the three of them kept working until Kokichi and Angie knocked on the door to let them know that it was time for dinner. Today, Kirumi had reheated some of the food Miu had frozen a few days ago, to give her a break. Unlike the previous meetings, everyone was reluctant to leave for dinner; After all, dinner meant more motives. Nobody wanted that.

But all that waiting would do would be prolonging the inevitable.


	76. Daily Life: Day Six (Second Motives)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's midnight in my timezone so I can post the January 1st chapter RIGHT. NOW. And boy isn't this a great way to start 2018? ;3

Shuichi was annoyed to see upon his arrival to the Dining Hall that Monokuma was already there, waiting for everybody. Just after that annoyance, he noticed that Miu had switched tables; Was it because of what he and Kokichi said to her earlier, or did she have some other reason she decided to sit at the more populated dinner table?

Maybe it was so that she wouldn't be expected to participate in the conversation. Tsumugi and Kaede sat with Kirumi and Kiibo as usual, and everyone else took up their normal positions too. Shuichi and Kokichi both had the same idea once they'd sat down, reaching for the food. At least they'd eat _something_ before potentially running away if their motives were up right now.

"Upupu! Hurray, everyone's here! I want to get started with these great motives right away! I have some real hot takes to give you guys. But, how about I give you one now, and one a little later, so you got more time to think about them? Let's start with... Kaede Akamtsu."

"Okay," Kaede said, not seeming shocked at all.

"Huh? I thought you'd be more upset to hear that..." Monokuma sighed, then carried on, "Nonetheless! Here we go! Two truths and a lie about Kaede Akamatsu. Kaede Akamatsu is unable to feel the passage of time. Kaede Akamatsu has come to the wrong conclusion in one of the cases so far. Kaede Akamatsu is an orphan."

Kaede wasn't surprised to hear that those were the things being tossed at her, and prepared to argue the truths out of that motive, taking a deep breath to steel herself for admitting it, "The lie is that I've come to the wrong conclusion. The other two are true."

"Really?" Kiibo asked, "But you were just talking about your father."

"Yes," Kaede agreed, "In the past tense. He died about a year before we came here. My mother did, as well. Actually... The truth is, they were killed in front of me. That's all the detail that I want to give."

"It doesn't make much sense that you can't tell time, though. Both cases so far have had some importance put on time, after all," Kirumi said, "I mean, I want that second one to be the lie, but that first one doesn't make a lot of sense to be the truth."

"Oh, that's just because you're misunderstanding. Akamatsu can't feel time passing," Tsumugi stood up for her, "She can tell time using clocks and such. The problem is that if she was in a room without a clock, she wouldn't be able to tell you if it was five minutes or five hours which passed by the time she left the room."

"Oh, that makes sense," Kiibo admitted.

"Shirogane and Saihara both already knew I'm an orphan who can't tell time," Kaede continued, "So, they can easily verify it for you if you need more testimony."

"Monokuma did say that some of the things it said could be lies that we've already told each other," Kirumi said, "But, I'm going to believe you. Both of those things are a bit too specific, I think, for you to have manufactured them before these motives entered the equation."

"Yes," Tsumugi grabbed onto Kaede's arm, "Akamatsu's definitely telling the truth right now. Besides, both of the trials so far, the culprit confessed. Plus, didn't Monokuma say there would be repercussions if we found the wrong person guilty...? That was a really poorly thought-out lie to tell about her."

"Hey now..." Monokuma sounded sad, "I could have decided against the repercussions for the sake of this motive, you know. Plus, that's more plausible than the idea that somebody couldn't feel the passage of time!"

"More plausible that the Ultimate Detective failed to find the correct culprit, than that she doesn't feel time? Ha," Kirumi defended Kaede now, "And you call yourself a Monokuma. All Killing Games use Ultimate Talents, right? You should know by now not to underestimate us."

"Oh, Tojo," Kaede turned to Kirumi, "You got the whole flashback this time. That's good to hear."

"Yes," Kirumi nodded, then glared at Monokuma, "I am not the one of us who received alternative memories regarding the nature of Killing Games. It came and told Idabashi and I about that fact in the infirmary after we left."

"Hey, there's no need to be mean to me..." Monokuma complained, then its voice perked right back up, "Okay, that's more than enough time to discuss Akamatsu's thing! I'm going to move on to the next person!"

"Hold on now," Ryoma spoke up from the other table, "Akamatsu... It's a bit strange that you had such an obvious lie placed on your head, isn't it? As if the person who created these motives had no intention of making anybody want to kill you."

"I..." Kaede looked down at her own hands, "I guess you're right about that, Hoshi..."

"That helps Shirogane's theory, doesn't it?" Shuichi asked, "That the purpose of these motives, exposing our secrets to everyone and making us admit unfortunate truths about ourselves, isn't actually to paint a target on our backs. But to make us break down. That's what Iruma's motive did, at least."

"Aww, you guys are way too smart," Monokuma complained, "Fine, painting targets is way harder than I expected. But these are still motives for murder, whatever way you look at it, so does it matter? And anyway, maybe the next motive I hand out will debunk your theory after all..."

"You mean..." Tsumugi froze where she sat, as if she was terrified her motive could be next, "The next one really _could_ paint a target on somebody?"

"I mean, yeah? Idabashi's was designed that way, but it didn't work out because he already confessed to being a Future Foundation scab," Monokuma shrugged, "Really, I don't care how you view these motives, it doesn't change what they are at heart! So next up on my chopping block is Kokichi Ouma."

Kokichi dug his fingers into Shuichi's palm, then muttered an apology as he pulled his hand away, staring down at what was left of his food.

Monokuma continued, "Kokichi Ouma's two truths and a lie are as follows! And again, remember, they're in no particular order. Kokichi Ouma can barely fall asleep without another human by his side. Kokichi Ouma fucked his way to the top of his field. Kokichi Ouma has killed somebody before."


	77. Daily Life: Day Six (Boyfriend B-Side)

Kokichi stood up from the table and only said, "I'm going to my room."

He didn't try to say what was true and what wasn't, he didn't address the shocked looks he was getting even from his friends, and he didn't attempt to even offer Shuichi a hasty explanation. Just a statement of his destination, and he was gone.

Tenko didn't wait to respond, once more pushing through her shock to sharply address Shuichi, "Well, what are you waiting for, Saihara? Go talk to him."

"He wants to be alone, though, right?" Shuichi asked.

"He wants to be left alone by anyone but you," Tenko said, "And you're probably the only person who can find out which of those statements are truths or lies. Go."

"Geeze, okay," Shuichi waved his hands in front of himself defensively, then stood and made his way out of the Dining Hall. He went straight to the dorm building, and to Kokichi's room, knocking on the door.

"Go away," Kokichi barely made an attempt to be audible through the door.

"It's Saihara," Shuichi called back, and moments later, Kokichi opened the door, staring a hole right through him without a word, "I'm worried about you. You'll have to explain, you know. To me at least."

"Not a word to anyone else," Kokichi said, voice flat.

"Why not?" Shuichi asked, "Don't you want to dispel the lie...?"

"I'd rather let the others think what they want about me, than admit to an unfortunate truth," Kokichi motioned Shuichi inside, then closed the door behind him, "That's another strategy to handle these motives, anyway."

"I guess," Shuichi shrugged, then looked Kokichi in the eyes, "So. What's the lie?"

Kokichi wandered over and sat down on the side of his bed, staring down at his own knees, "The lie is that I've killed someone before. I've never done anything like that."

"So, the other..." Shuichi trailed off, then just sat down next to Kokichi.

"I told you," Kokichi shrugged his shoulders, still looking anywhere but at Shuichi, "I became the Ultimate Magician using the skills I discovered when I was kidnapped. It's not just escaping that I learned there."

"So, when you told Iruma that you understood her position..." Shuichi realized.

"Hah, yeah. It's kind of funny, you know. I really was the Ultimate Magician, all along, but how's a foster kid supposed to break into the industry?" Kokichi pressed his toes into the carpet and bit down on his lip, struggling through saying this, "And you know, every time I was on stage, I felt happy. And I was so glad to see everyone else smiling too. And I thought, well, if this is what I earn for doing what my manager says, then maybe it's all worth it."

"So Monokuma just phrased it the way that would paint you in the worst light," Shuichi observed, "When it was more like, you were being blackmailed into remaining in your field."

"Yeah, basically," Kokichi said, "And... Saihara? Back in the outside world, I always thought all there was to my life, would be singular spots of light, if I paid the price of being in darkness all the rest of the time. That was all it would ever be, and when I died, that would be just fine. I thought I'd run out of new tricks, and then I'd just die. And I was coming up on that point, I was really thinking about it. Then I woke up here."

"And..." Kokichi continued, "Are you really okay with me, like this? I never meant to give you the impression I was better than this, but I understand if..."

"Kokichi..." Shuichi couldn't think of anything else to say to him, how to reassure him.

"I was never afraid of death before," Kokichi finally made eye contact with Shuichi as he said this, his voice weak, "Because why would I be? It would be the first good rest I got in a long goddamn time. But now I am. I'm terrified of dying. I don't want to lose what I've found here."

"Me neither," Shuichi confirmed, bringing a hand up towards Kokichi's cheek, but stopping short, "Is it okay?"

"Hey," Kokichi grabbed his hand and set it against his cheek, "You think you're gonna break me or something? This is totally different. You're Shuichi Saihara. Not my shitty manager. You don't have to hesitate."

"I don't want to hurt you, in any way," Shuichi explained, eyes full of concern, "You've got to have boundaries. I need to know what those are."

"Boundaries?" Kokichi asked, then shrugged, "I dunno. I guess," He brought his hand away from Shuichi's and reached around him, pressed two fingers against the back of his neck, along the hairline, "Well, you probably shouldn't touch me here. But for you, Shuichi? That's it, really."

"Okay," Shuichi nodded, holding eye contact with Kokichi, "And you're sure that's it?"

"I swear it," Kokichi couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at Shuichi's persistence, "That's really all there is. Trust me, I'd let you know. And I will, if I think of anything else, but for now, just assume it's fine."

"If you're sure..." Shuichi trailed off, then blinked a few times, just staring into Kokichi's eyes before he closed his own and leaned in closer, letting their lips meet. Gentle, and fairly short, but Kokichi didn't pull away. Shuichi moved back, then tapped their foreheads together, "Was _that_ okay?"

"Yeah, it was," Kokichi said, finally smiling again, "It's kind of weird. Even with everything that's happened, that was my first kiss. Can you believe it?" He trailed his hand down Shuichi's back, "And that's why it's okay, Shuichi. Every moment I spend with you is proof that you care about me so much more than anybody else ever did."

"We all do, here," Shuichi said, "Everyone else is your friend, too. They'd understand if you explained, you know."

"I know they would, but..." Kokichi sighed, "It's something really personal. It's hard to talk about, and I was trying to get up the nerve just to tell _you_. I figured something like this might happen, that I'd have to explain because of a motive. And it was hard to even think about giving up the truth to you, and I trust you more than anyone else."

"I understand," Shuichi said, "But whatever the others decide they want to believe the lie is, it reflects badly on you, the way that Monokuma phrased it. Are you sure you don't want to make, or have me make some attempt at defending you?"

"I'm sure," Kokichi said, "Yeah, maybe it will reflect badly on me, but I trust everyone here enough not to care so much it'll cause problems. I'm guessing if anything, they'll worry about _you_ , dating me, if I'm apparently so willing to sleep with someone to get ahead... Or, they'll be a little scared I might commit a murder. No big deal, because I won't. See how it's not important to admit something bad is true, if it's okay that people speculate about it instead?"

"Yeah, you do have a point there," Shuichi relented, "Now that you put it that way depending on what Monokuma sets forth for me, maybe I'd follow your example..."

"As long as you make it up to me by telling me the truth, like I did for you," Kokichi said, then hesitated only a moment before he moved to kiss Shuichi again, just a small peck this time, "We're going to get through this Killing Game, Shuichi. I promise."


	78. Daily Life: Day Six (POV Swap; Perjury Discussion)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'm gonna give the chapters easy to understand titles!  
> Also Me: But this weird, not at all explanatory chapter title sounds cool

Kaede stared at the door to the outside after Kokichi and Shuichi had left, only to be snapped out of it by Tsumugi tapping her arm. She whipped her head around to Tsumugi, and spoke without thinking, "Shirogane. Did you change your mind?"

"No," Tsumugi shook her head, "Just wanted to get you to stop staring at the door. It's been ten minutes."

"Oh," Kaede froze, then turned her attention back to her food and continued eating, "Sorry about that. I'm just a little bit concerned..."

"What do you think is the lie, Akamatsu?" Kiibo asked.

"I don't know," Kaede shook her head, "I'm guessing that the lie is that Ouma's killed somebody, but then that means that something else pretty unfortunate is a truth. I mean, maybe it's a lie that he 'fucked to the top of his field', and when he killed somebody before it was some sort of accident. Really, it's hard to try and make a decision like this when it comes to potential lies about somebody's nature instead of something that happened."

"I think that the lie is that he's killed someone," Kirumi offered her two cents, raising her hand, "As a cosplayer, I've consumed a lot of media talking about human nature. I don't think Ouma has killed someone. He probably has it in him, but he seems to have at least _that_ degree of innocence left."

"Are you certain, Tojo?" Kiibo asked, frowning at her.

"I can't be certain. But that's my thought," Kirumi said, "And it's hard to imagine being wrong about this. Besides, don't you want to believe in our classmate?"

"I'm not sure that taking either of those questionable statements at face value is believing in Ouma," Kiibo said.

"Idabashi," Kirumi's voice was suddenly full of venom, "We are all of us, Tragic Ultimates. Don't you think making those sort of judgments aren't exactly in your best interest, for the upcoming election... And for the sake of your friendships?"

"If the lie is that he's killed somebody, then is Ouma even really an Ultimate at all?" Kiibo asked, furrowing his brow, "If that really is the case, then it brings into question if he actually earned his title."

"Idabashi!" Kirumi snapped again, smacking the side of his arm, "You saw his show! There's no new information about any Ultimate which can deduct from their achievements, and if you continue to act in this absurd manner, I'll be forced to withdraw my vote. You are not behaving like yourself, and haven't been for quite a while now. I was trying to accept it as a natural panic from the murders which have occurred, but this is just one step too far over the line."

"I'm not... Acting like myself?" Kiibo asked, wide-eyed, then looked down at his own hands, "I guess you're right? Now that you mention it... Yeah. Oh, this isn't good," Kiibo stood up and started to walk towards the door out of the Dining Hall, then turned back to the table, "Tojo...? Please come with me. I need your help with something."

Kirumi looked back to Kaede and Tsumugi, then shrugged as she stood up, "I'll fix this, okay? Please don't lose faith in him."

"I'll count on you," Kaede said with a forced smile and a nod as Kirumi went to join Kiibo at the door, and they left. Kaede turned to Tsumugi, smile fading from her face, "I think Idabashi lied about something when it came to his motive."

"What would he have lied about, though?" Tsumugi asked, frowning, "And didn't you just say these are the sort of lies you can't sniff out as easily?"

"Well, I don't know what he lied about, exactly," Kaede admitted, "But why would he be falling apart before our eyes if there wasn't more to it than he was letting on?"

"He seemed terrified as soon as Tojo pointed out that he was acting weird," Tsumugi said, "Do you think it could have something to do with that fight? He was saying those things about people becoming overcome with True Despair..."

"You mean..." Kaede realized what Tsumugi was getting at, "Is he afraid that happened to him? That seems a bit implausible."

"Hm, maybe..." Tsumugi shrugged, then locked eyes with Kaede, "But you never know what will happen in a place like this, do you?"

"Shirogane..." Kaede trailed off, looking away from her and tensing her shoulders, "I just want to protect you, if I can. If you don't want your motive coming out..."

"I can handle it, Akamatsu. I won't let you endanger yourself for my sake," Tsumugi reached out and grabbed Kaede's chin, forcing her to look her in the eyes, "I mean, seriously, idiot. Do you really think I'd rather my secrets die with you, than let them get out and have you here with me? That's what you were getting at, right?"

"I..." Kaede couldn't lie, not with Tsumugi looking her right in the eyes like this, "You're right, okay? Monokuma said the motives would continue being released until another murder occurred. So I could stop them before yours got out..."

"Yeah. You really are an idiot," Tsumugi said, then released Kaede's chin, glaring at her, "You'd die too, then. What's the point of doing something for somebody if you won't be around to see the fruits of your labor, huh? I'd probably be just as miserable either way. Plus, didn't you ever think," Tsumugi curled her lip back and gave a harsh whisper, "If you left me behind, I'd probably relapse? Having a breakdown with you here to catch me is definitely the better outcome there..."

"Sorry, Shirogane..." Kaede said, looking away again, "I didn't think of it that way. All I wanted to do was protect you... And I didn't really think that I'd matter that much."

"If I matter enough to you that you want to protect me, wouldn't you matter enough to me that I wouldn't want to be left behind again?" Tsumugi asked, then stood up with another sigh, "Akamatsu. You matter so much to everybody here, so much more than you know, clearly. Please don't ever think again about something as dumb as sacrificing yourself. It's really selfish."

Kaede watched Tsumugi leave, then stood up herself and left the room, stopping just outside the door to take a deep breath and collect herself. She was falling apart too. Just like everyone else. And Kiibo, he'd promised to be the glue that held them together in times like this, but she was watching his edges fray too.

Maybe it wasn't so absurd to think that a group of talented but traumatized teens could be egged on to participate in a Killing Game.


	79. Daily Life: Day Six (Tenko's Past)

Kaede didn't want to go back to her room yet. Going back to her room meant she was ready to try and sleep, and she really wasn't; After all, she'd slept like a log the night before. She found herself just wandering around the academy, trying to walk off her feelings. She was in a haze, and she certainly wasn't remembering to check clocks. She didn't learn she'd been wandering for a good hour until Tenko shook her by the shoulders and said, "Hey, Akamatsu! Wake up."

"Huh...?" Kaede mumbled, then blinked a few times, "Ah, I was just taking a walk, to clear my head..."

"To clear your head?" Tenko asked, squinting at her, "You looked like a zombie, kid!"

"Aren't we all around the same age?" Kaede asked, then tried to shake off her haze, "Ah, I got lost in thought but my legs kept going, I guess. Do you need something?"

"Yeah, I do!" Tenko said, "I need to tell you that nobody cares about that motive. I still don't know if Monokuma's even telling the truth on any of th-"

"My motive was worthless. You're just leading up to defending Ouma, right?" Kaede asked, and Tenko took a step backwards in shock that Kaede figured her out so quickly, "Hey, it's fine. I won't hold anything against Ouma. If you want my opinion on which was a lie? It wasn't the one about sleeping next to another human, that's for sure. So it was either the second statement, in which case Ouma most certainly committed manslaughter and not any degree of murder, or the third statement, in which case the Ultimate Initiative clearly still considered his talent worthy in spite of how he may have advanced in his field."

"Damn, you read me like an open book..." Tenko trailed off, then straightened up, "So what you're saying is, you believe in him, right?"

"Yeah, you could say that. I can't say that I would be able to take either of those statements as a slight against him in my eyes, even if a normal person might. Is it wrong for a detective to be as lacking in conviction as I am...?" Kaede said, scratching the back of her head.

"You aren't lacking in conviction at all!" Tenko grabbed the sides of her arms, almost shaking her, with a wild grin on her face, "You choose to put your faith in people above the law, and that's what makes you the Ultimate Detective! You understand that your talent is to find truth, not to find justice... And that sometimes, the law is wrong about somebody. Right?"

"That's exactly right..." Kaede said, blinking a few times in surprise before she brushed it off, joking, "A detective and an anthropologist. How can anybody hide anything here? One of us is bound to figure it out."

"Heh," Tenko released her, looking up at the ceiling, "Don't say that too loud. Might freak somebody out to realize that we know all their business like that."

"You're closer to Ouma than I am," Kaede said, and the two fell into step, walking along as they spoke, "What do you think the truth is?"

"That guy..." Tenko's voice fell quiet as she contemplated, holding her chin in her hand, "Well, you already know I determined the men I keep company with are not degenerate at all. But, it's strange enough, I feel a kinship with Ouma above any I could have with the other guys, and you know why, I figured out today?" She paused for effect, "It's cause he's not only non-degenerate. He's a victim of degenerate males himself. So, I really think it's the second statement. As for the third, it was almost plausible. Ouma's got it in him. And he wanted to kill somebody before, wanted real bad... But he didn't. And I honestly couldn't tell you if the person he wanted to kill was the person who hurt him, or himself."

"Chabashira..." Kaede said, giving her a soft look, "That's a really specific thing to figure out. Even more specific than any of the deductions I've been able to make, and I got one really specific."

"To Shirogane, right? Yeah, you spend a lot of time staring at her," Tenko teased, but then got serious again, "I guess it is weirdly specific. But, you know what I think? Ouma himself probably couldn't tell you who he wanted to kill, either. When it comes to that sort of situation, ah, everything's a mess. It's just anger and hate, and despair. Especially if there's something going to make you feel trapped in it, too. Wouldn't having your career in show business suspended on the idea that you're more doll than person do that?"

"It sounds almost like you speak from experience," Kaede said.

"Almost?" Tenko scoffed, "That should've been obvious even to someone who was the Ultimate Oblivious, Miss Detective, that's not an impressive read."

"You want to talk about it?" Kaede offered.

"I really just wanted to use it to give context to Ouma's situation. But it'll come out sooner or later with these motives anyway. If you know ahead of time, you can back me up and I won't have to say this shit to _everyone_ myself," Tenko groaned, stretching so her fingertips nearly brushed the ceiling before she crossed her arms again, "Would you like to say some parting words to the alluring mystery of Tenko Chabashira, before you meet the unfortunate truth of Tenko Chabashira?"

"It was fun while it lasted?" Kaede offered, not protesting against Tenko's decision to tell her the truth. She understood not wanting to be caught off-guard by the motives.

"Thanks," Tenko clicked her tongue, then continued, "Guess we could call it my parents' fault, but it's not like they ever did anything wrong. Can't expect them to be bothered with me. See, the thing is, when I was growing up I always had way too much energy. What adult wants to deal with having ball lightning in place of a kid? So I got sent to all these different camps so I'd be someone else's problem. That's when I discovered my talent for anthropology, this interactive science camp. I was so good at it, I never used a different activity. The instructor they had on there was a real-deal anthropologist too, so that was my ticket in. All good so far!"

She paused, then sighed before her story went on, "After that summer, he was going to spend a few years studying pyramids in Egypt, remnants of ancient villages. I wanted to go along, and he said, well, if I could somehow get to Egypt, I was welcome to go to the sites with him. Luck would have it, my parents had a friend who was living in Cairo, who even volunteered that I could stay with him before my mom got to the part where she actually popped the question."

"I can see where this is going," Kaede said, having enough of the picture filled in now, "This friend in Cairo was a degenerate male and you couldn't say anything because then you'd have to come back to Japan?"

"I will give you credit for that one," Tenko pointed at her, "Still not something hard to fill in the blanks on with everything I said, but good critical listening skills, eh?"

"How are you so blase about this?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow.

"It was a long time ago," Tenko said, "Nobody touched me a good four years before I ended up here. Guess I aged out of the strike zone. Anyway, isn't it pretty normal to end up joking about your trauma? It's like you're having a laugh at the expense of the degenerate responsible. You tried to tear me apart, but I'm still here on the other side and I can laugh at you for being so pathetic. That sort of thing."

"Maybe I should try it sometime?" Kaede said, then forced a laugh as she gave it a shot, "Wow, I sure had a great time losing a year to the timeless feeling of being lost in an utter mental abyss!"

"Maybe it wouldn't quite work for you," Tenko said, "The wound's still fresh for you, anyway, right?"

Kaede dropped the fake cheer and nodded, "Well, yeah. Still, I feel kind of silly watching other people function just fine, and wondering where I went wrong in getting over it."

"Nobody's over it," Tenko said, "Not really. And we look at you and we think, wow, Akamatsu's been through _something_ , since we all have. And she's leading us to the truth in grueling class trials without missing a beat. Where did we go wrong in getting over it? Cause that's the thing. We all show off our most perfect masks and still worry that we missed a spot in the paper mache. That we left a hole to see how miserable we are through."

"And now Monokuma's ripping those masks right off," Kaede noted, staring at the wall, "We're not really falling apart, are we, Chabashira? It's how we've always been, but now everyone else can see it."

"Yeah," Tenko agreed, "We really are a sorry bunch, the lot of us. The reason a Killing Game uses Ultimate Talents would be to cause despair over how much good they could have done if they hadn't died, I think. But who would really despair over us? We have such bright, shining talents, but no matter how hard we tried our stories would end in tragedy out in the real world too. The very minute that we earned the title of Tragic, our potential as Ultimates really got... squandered."

"Maybe the purpose of this Killing Game isn't to cause despair?" Kaede said.

"Maybe not," Tenko agreed, then turned to look at her, "Hey, tomorrow, it's back to normal, okay? It's fearless Kaede and passionate Tenko, not these shitty versions of us nobody wants to be around."

"Of course," Kaede said with a nod, "There's still a few pieces of mask left. It's better to use those than give in to being like this. Wallowing in misery just doesn't work when everybody's scared and sad. If we didn't all set good examples for each other, even if it _is_ fake..."

"Then there's no way we could prevent the Killing Game," Tenko finished for her.


	80. Daily Life: Day Six (Is This A Ship Yet?)

Kaede and Tenko went their separate ways, and Kaede decided to go back to her lab. Sure, she couldn't tell what time it was there without digging out her Monopad, but she'd hear the nighttime announcement and she could take that as time to leave. She approached her lab and opened the door, only to find that Tsumugi was sitting inside.

Tsumugi waved to her, then shifted over so that Kaede could come sit next to her, "Hey, Akamatsu. I wanted to apologize for being short with you earlier."

"Huh?" Kaede asked, then walked over and sat down next to her, "No, you had every right to be. I was being stupid. And, yeah, kind of selfish. I like to think that I know all the answers, or at least, that I can find all the answers. Because I've been told that I can, because that's what I'm supposed to do. But, I don't. And I ended up upsetting you by thinking I knew how to protect you, when I didn't."

"You're confident, Akamatsu. Even when you're insecure, you still believe in yourself," Tsumugi noted, "That much is obvious. But, sometimes, you _are_ wrong... I'm beginning to wonder, you know."

"About what?" Kaede asked.

"Iruma didn't think any of the listed motives applied to her, and Monokuma said it's possible that they were repressed or scrambled memories. It could be the same with you. Like, maybe one of your parents secretly survived without your knowledge, and without realizing it, you found the wrong culprit..." Tsumugi sighed, "And Monokuma let it slide because just killing us all wouldn't be fun for it."

"I don't think that's possible," Kaede said, "And, yeah, part of it is that I trust in my own abilities! But also... There's no way my mom or dad survived. I watched them die... I wish, that it could be true, that I forgot one of them miraculously pulled through, but that's just not the case. It's impossible."

"Okay, Akamatsu," Tsumugi nodded, reaching out for her, "I won't doubt you any more. I just wanted to make sure, that you really knew yourself as well as you thought..."

"Thanks, Shirogane. I know you're just trying to look out for me," Kaede said and grabbed her hand with a reassuring, confident grin, "But there's nothing to worry about! I'm not going anywhere, I promise. It was dumb of me to think for even a minute that I could kill someone... Even if it was for your sake."

"You just think without thinking sometimes, Akamatsu," Tsumugi chuckled, "You get one thought into your head, and then you never follow up on the other possibilites. You do that during the trials too, you know. You lead us to the truth, but it takes somebody asking the right question or saying the right statement to get you to think about other angles, I think... I'm no good at reading people, but I think I can figure out that much about _you_."

"You're right," Kaede shook her head, laughing a little herself, "I can pick up on every detail in a room, but when it comes to figuring out what those details mean, I'd have tunnel vision if not for other people helping me out. I guess that's because I never actually solved a case, before coming here. I got my Ultimate Title just because I was so good at noticing things, and remembering them, you know."

"I feel like the Ultimate Initiative kind of stretched with us..." Tsumugi admitted, looking down at the table, "To find people with tragedy in their pasts, who also have Ultimate Talents, couldn't have been easy. So they embellished those of us that they found so that our talents could be more easily understood. You, an Ultimate Observer, became a Detective instead. And I'd be the Ultimate Space Travel Scientist, but I became Astronaut. The titles still suit us, but..."

"You're right," Kaede noted, pressing her hands together, "Well, some people are direct matches, though. And Idabashi has that weird title, so why didn't you get a weird title too? Or me?"

"Well," Tsumugi started, fidgeting where she sat, "Actually, the title you probably would have been suited to was 'Ultimate Analyst'. But, you got Detective because it's the next best thing, and you like detective novels," Tsumugi explained, "I don't think the Ultimate Initiative would dare reuse Analyst. You heard the story, right?"

"Of course, everyone knows that," Kaede said, "The Ultimate Analyst was the person who became so fed up with seeing everything and predicting everything, that they plunged the world into despair just to find something unpredictable. That's why the Future Foundation was formed."

"Yeah," Tsumugi agreed, "So the Ultimate Initiative couldn't do that. But I think that giving you the title of Ultimate Detective was a good choice anyway," She giggled, "You've really grown into the role. I guess all it took for you to take that step was to be told that you should."

Kaede sighed, "Even if they wanted to call me the Ultimate Analyst, it wouldn't make enough sense. Ultimates are the top of their field, after all, and I can't predict _anything_ , so I'm way below Ultimate level for that. I guess, though, it sets me apart from other detectives. I'm kind of a regular Sherlock Holmes, after all," She gave Tsumugi a teasing wink.

"I can't really deny that, since you did figure out how my brother betrayed me, and all of that..." Tsumugi said, "Though you're just a bit shy of being as eccentric as him, you know."

"I'll have to work on that," Kaede proclaimed.

"Please don't," Tsumugi deadpanned back, "Your current level is plenty to deal with."

"You're no fun," Kaede joked, then looked up as she heard what sounded like the mild static of the announcement beginning. That particular bell chime proved her right just a second later, then that cursed bear began to speak.

"Hey everyone! Another day gone by here in the Ultimate Academy. The end of day six, actually. Can you believe it's been such little time? So much can happen in a few days. Romance can blossom, people can die, it's all very fascinating what sort of things will occur in an environment like this! Of course, those are the two outcomes of putting overemotional people in a confined space together for any amount of time. Just killing or boning. There's really no alternative. Anyway, get to bed, kiddos! I can't wait to share some more juicy motives in the morning~!"

Kaede rolled her eyes at the announcement, but stood up, "Well, that's my cue to get some rest, anyway. I swear, that bear gets more obnoxious every time it speaks."

"I agree," Tsumugi said, following Kaede to the door of her lab before she reached out and grabbed onto the elbow of her blazer, "Hey, Akamatsu? It's not weird, for friends to sleep in the same room, right?"

"Not really," Kaede said, "Why?"

"Well," Tsumugi glanced away, "I said it was a bad idea, earlier, but now that I've thought about it... It might help my nightmares, to share a room with someone. I can use the couch in your dorm, and if it doesn't help at all and I end up waking you up, feel free to kick me out..."

"How is just being in the same room as me supposed to help?" Kaede asked, leading the way out of the school building, "Don't sleep on the couch. If you're next to me, I might be able to help calm you down, you know?"

"R-Right," Tsumugi stammered, bringing a hand up to hide her face as she followed Kaede.


	81. Daily Life: Day Seven (POV Swap; Morning)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this fic has reached 100,000 words without the third case even happening yet. That means it's not even halfway done, and it's this long! 0-0 My last alternate killing game that I completed ended up being 82,000 words total, so that's pretty good, if I do say so myself

"Good morning, you bastards! Please report straight to breakfast, I'm so excited to give you some brand new motives!" Monokuma's voice woke Shuichi, and he groggily rubbed his eyes as he sat up, groaning. For the duration of these motives being handed out, waking up was a huge pain, because it meant that somebody else was about to have their secrets exposed in front of everyone.

Shuichi hated having to see that. He valued all of his friendships here; No, he valued _every person_ here, even those who didn't talk to him often. He didn't like seeing anybody upset. He wasn't the sort of artist who could find beauty in sadness, who saw utter destruction as the peak of aesthetics. He wanted to portray real beauty wherever he could, and to him, despair had no part in real beauty.

Well, maybe that wasn't quite true. There were slivers of real beauty in this world that were full of tragedy, but it wasn't because of the despair that they were beautiful. The despair just failed to destroy the beauty. Shuichi's friends were an example of that. His friends, and Kokichi. He knew more about Kokichi's past than anybody else's, and he felt connected with him in a strange way.

Almost like they'd met before, but that was impossible, wasn't it? Shuichi would remember meeting somebody like this. Not because he was so amazing; In fact, a first meeting with Kokichi would always have just left him dazed and confused, because Kokichi was a lot to take in all at once. And that was how Shuichi knew he wouldn't have forgotten a meeting like that. There was no way.

So why did he feel like this? It was strange, but not uncomfortable. He looked at Kokichi, who had slept through the morning announcement, and thought that he really was a sliver of beauty that had survived through the world trying to destroy it. Despite what he said about himself, Kokichi had an enduring spirit. He could get through anything.

And, well, if he couldn't, then there was very lucky timing on getting him out of Hell.

Shuichi would have liked to just stay here, ignoring the motives and staring at Kokichi- Was that creepy? If not, would it become creepy if he were to draw him? Probably. Still, there was a sort of peace there that Kokichi never seemed to carry with him while he was awake, and Shuichi wished he could preserve that forever.

Well, he wouldn't have to, as long as he could hold onto Kokichi. He'd made a promise, after all, and now he knew what Kokichi wished he could protect him from. Shuichi wasn't any good in a fight, never had been, but he wanted to fight for Kokichi. He would fight to protect him and fight to keep him.

It was an unfamilar feeling.

But, it was a good one.

Shuichi stood up and stretched out, then moved to the couch where he sat down and opened up his Monopad, messing around with a few things. He wanted to let Kokichi sleep. It was another fifteen minutes till Kokichi stirred, calling out as he sat up, "Morning, Shuichi~"

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Shuichi asked, turning back around to look at Kokichi as he attempted to command his bedhead into something a little less absurd. Just a little.

"Yeah. But now that I'm awake... We'll have to hear more motives, won't we?" Kokichi asked, wrapping his arms around himself.

"I will," Shuichi said, standing back up, "But if you don't want to, I can bring you back breakfast. Monokuma never said that everyone actually has to be there."

"...Thanks," Kokichi said with a small nod. Shuichi could tell that in spite of himself, Kokichi didn't want to face any of the others and deal with whatever accusations they may have. Shuichi dreaded it himself, but if one of them had to deal with it, he'd rather it be him. For Kokichi, it was obvious that it was still a raw wound. Unlike some of the others here, his suffering had gone right up to the moment before he woke up here. Like Kaede, Shuichi realized. If anyone would understand, it would be her, but... He'd keep his word and keep the secret for Kokichi.

"I'll be back soon," Shuichi promised, then made his way out of the room. Tenko was waiting right outside the door, which he closed behind himself before making eye contact with her, "Morning, Chabashira..."

"I'm not going to ask you to tell me anything," Tenko said, "I'm sure he wouldn't want you to. I just wanted to know... Is he okay?"

"No," Shuichi said, "Not okay. None of us are, though. He'll be alright, but he doesn't want to see anybody right now. I'm going to bring him back some food after breakfast. That motive hit him kind of hard."

"That's what these motives are doing, to all of us..." Tenko said, putting a hand on Shuichi's shoulder to lead him out of the building, "Even people who are putting on brave faces, but you know, we'll all get through it. It'd be impossible for something like this to defeat Ultimates! As long as we're all here for each other, right Saihara?"

Shuichi agreed, "Good point. Still, I'm scared about mine... I just don't know what Monokuma's going to say about me, but there's definitely some things I'd rather stayed secret about me."

Tenko led him up to the Dining Hall, "Well, it's not such a big deal, is it, when everyone's secrets are being revealed? If every single person is in the same boat, then it's not within their rights to judge you unless they're prepared to be judged too."

"That's a good point," Shuichi said, "I guess that it's a bigger deal for the first people, since a lot of us are still waiting. Monokuma might have counted on that too, for somebody to commit a murder so that their motive wouldn't be released?"

"That's a scary thought. I would never do that!" Tenko proclaimed, "I would rather have my darkest secrets revealed and suffer the consequences, than become a murderer and get away with it. I could never live with myself if I did such a thing."

"I know," Shuichi said, and left it at that. He could feel that Tenko knew, though. She knew which statement was the lie among Kokichi's. She knew that he would share her sentiment; Even if he'd known what Monokuma would say, Kokichi would never have killed to keep it quiet.


	82. Daily Life: Day Seven (Third Motives)

Kaede sat down at her group's table in the Dining Hall, and looked up as Kiibo and Kirumi did the same. Miu had come back to this table, and Tsumugi was already here. Kiibo took a deep breath, then addressed the table, "Everybody... I'd like to apologize for my actions as of late. Tojo brought to my attention that the stress of trying to carry everybody's worries has been causing me to buckle and behave in unfitting ways. I understand if I have lost your faith, but if I haven't, I'll try... No, I _will_ do better. I promise."

"Anybody trying to do as much as you would have trouble. Iruma took the afternoon off yesterday," Tsumugi said, gesturing to Miu, "Nobody will fault you if you do the same, Idabashi. You're still obviously the Ultimate Supreme Leader if you're a politician that can admit when you're wrong."

"Why don't you and Tojo both spend some time in my lab today?" Miu offered, holding her hand out towards them, "You've been working even harder than I have, the both of you. I mean, Tojo, you even covered for me when I wasn't feeling up to preparing dinner... On top of everything else. You deserve to relax and get some of that stress off your shoulders."

"Are you sure, Iruma?" Kiibo asked, "You could take some more time off, if you need it, nobody's going to fault you..."

"I took the afternoon to sort my feelings out. Now, I want to help you do the same. Dwelling on the bad things can't be good for anyone here, and besides. I realized... It's not nice of me, to be so upset over Maki. That makes it seem like I don't believe we can find her someday, but I know we can," Miu explained, then straightened up in her seat and gave a smile, "The best way to honor the memory of our fallen friends is to be as happy as we can. It's what they would want for us."

"I understand," Kiibo said, "Thank you, Iruma. You're so reliable, all of the time. I wish there were some way for us all to express how truly grateful we are for all you do for us."

Miu shrugged, "You already have, plenty."

"Hey you bastards!" Monokuma interrupted, appearing out of nowhere once more, "Huh? I thought you'd all arrived, but one of you is missing... Saihara, where is he?"

"Ouma decided to stay in his room. You never said that everybody needed to attend the meals," Shuichi said.

"You're right... Ugh," Monokuma complained, "Well, I'll let you use that loophole once, but now there's a new rule! If anybody skips the meal, I'll deliver the motives over the PA system so that you can't escape. Well, at least Ouma's already had his motive revealed... So it's not like he's trying to get out of playing! So without further ado, let's start with our first lovely victim. Angie Yonaga!"

"Awh," Angie said, pouting at her table, "So soon? Atua told me I'd get to go later..."

"Well, I may have changed up the order a little bit from my plans!" Monokuma said, then continued, "In any case, Angie Yonaga's two truths and a lie. When learning piano, Angie Yonaga could never get the hang of Chopsticks. Angie Yonaga has never had a crisis of faith. Angie Yonaga once stole money from her church's offertory."

Angie froze, then blinked a few times in shock before turning her eyes to her food again, "Huh. I guess Atua was on my side after all. My biggest secret's not even in there!"

"So which one is the lie, Yonaga?" Tenko asked her.

"If you don't mind, I'd rather not sully my faith or my talent by admitting to any of those!" Angie said with a soft smile, "None of it is really important, so you can believe what you want to, right?"

"Good point," Tenko said, "None of those things make any real difference when it comes to this. That's weak. It's things that'd upset Yonaga, but nobody else..."

"Sometimes, people don't have those types of secrets," Angie said, "Though I can't imagine why Monokuma didn't come up with a worse lie for me!"

"Unless..." Gonta said, "One is bad lie, just don't know it yet?"

"Hey, I told you!" Monokuma protested, "Yonaga and Saihara weren't supposed to be till tonight, but I swapped the breakfast and dinner motives because Saihara let Ouma skip the meal! Yep, that's right, our other victim this morning is none other than Shuichi Saihara! Let's get right into his two truths and a lie. Shuichi Saihara once sold a copy of a famous painting as if it were the original. Shuichi Saihara had seen dead bodies before the Killing Game began. Shuichi Saihara has never left the country."

Shuichi froze.

Clever, Monokuma, he realized. No, Monokuma was never going to do something as simple as revealing that he'd spent two years of hid life homeless, it was going to back him into a corner which would cause him to admit to it on his own, to preserve his integrity. In order to deny that he'd committed fraud, he'd have to admit he'd seen dead bodies. In order to keep from being seen in a negative light because of that, he'd need to explain why he'd been in that situation.

He grimaced, but took a deep breath and spoke, "The lie is that I once sold a copy of a famous painting. I've never done copies in my life, only originals. I... haven't left the country. I also have seen dead bodies before coming to the Ultimate Academy, but... That was kind of commonplace for a few years of my life. Things like people freezing to death in the winter, I mean," He shifted in his seat, avoiding eye contact with anybody at his table, "I was living on the streets. People die all the time in homeless camps."

"Hey," Angie said, leaning forward on the table and tilting her head, "Saihara. I think you're lying."


	83. Daily Life: Day Seven (Half-Truth)

"What do you mean, Yonaga?" Ryoma asked, looking to her after her strange statement, "Everything that Saihara's said lines up perfectly fine."

Angie blinked a few times, then explained herself, "Oh, I mean, I do think that the lie is that Saihara sold a copy of a painting as if it were the real one. And I think Saihara did see dead bodies when he was homeless, but this is Monokuma we're talking about, isn't it? There would have to be something else to it. The first time you ever saw a dead body, Saihara, that was before, wasn't it?"

Shuichi froze. How could Angie have figured that out? Was it something in the way he'd told his story, that made her doubt it? Or was there actually something to her statements that Atua knew everything about people? He felt everybody's eyes on him, and he sighed, looking down at the table, "I did see one dead body before I became homeless, yeah."

"That seems statistically unlikely," Rantaro said.

"It does, but it happened," Shuichi said, "Unfortunately. When I was in elementary school, one of the older teachers had a heart attack during the school day. So, yeah, Yonaga's right. All the kids who saw it got mandatory therapy and everything, the school did their best to remedy the situation."

"Basically, the opposite of this school," Tenko said, leaning against her palm and glaring at nothing, "Jeeze, that honestly just sounds pretty good now. An accidental death and grief therapy?"

"It does kind of sound like a luxury, doesn't it?" Rantaro said, "I'd take that over the Ultimate Academy anyday."

"Hey, Amami," Angie turned to him, "I haven't actually seen you around outside of meals lately. What have you been up to? Inventing something cool?"

"Huh? Well..." Rantaro gave a shrug, "Actually, I spent yesterday in Momota's lab, reading up. Somebody has to take care of his bugs, after all... And, no offense, but I feel like I'm the safest choice to do that. Even if anything else does happen, I'm the one who could put Maki back together. If anyone would kill me, it would be someone who doesn't want Maki back."

"That's a good point," Tenko said, "I don't want to think that anybody else is going to get killed, but when it comes down to the wire, it is good to think something like that. Amami does kind of have a shield around him, so it makes sense for him to be the one that preserves the legacy of our lost friends," She hesitated before continuing, "Except for Yumeno's. Aside from our sparring matches, Gokuhara has also been helping me learn to play tennis."

"Ah, yes!" Gonta said, "Yumeno would have taught Chabashira... Gonta know the rules, so took the job over."

"That's very kind of you," Ryoma said, "And it makes sense, that we do these things. It's what they would want for us, I'm sure."

"Taking care of Momota's bugs is important for one other reason, too," Angie said, raising one hand high as she spoke, "After all, you know... It's possible all this is being faked, right? And if it is, then Momota would be really happy to know that the bugs he loved so much are still okay!"

"That's just a little too much optimism, Yonaga," Tenko said, "If we let ourselves believe something that stupid... No way. All that would accomplish would be getting our hopes up for absolutely nothing."

"Oh," Angie pouted, looking down, "Is it so bad to believe that things could turn out okay, though? I just want to hope, that we'll see our friends again. Atua says that it's not likely, but it's possible... And isn't that good enough to give us some hope?"

"I just can't see why you'd want hope that could end up being horribly crushed. Isn't it better to be prepared for the worst and be pleasantly surprised if things happen to be better than that?" Tenko said.

Angie hesitated, then spoke again, "I don't like thinking about worst-case scenarios. Those can really get out of hand. There can always be a lower low than what you think rock bottom is, and before long you've just dug yourself into a bottomless pit. I'd rather climb a ladder and fall off of it, than do that."

"Ah," Tenko said, "If you put it that way, I can understand. It won't change my opinion, but if that's how you feel, then it makes sense that you'd rather think of something fantastical. Fantasy's still better than paranoia, if you're prone to that sort of thing. Say, Yonaga. Is that something that people do often, on your island? I'm curious about the microculture."

Angie thought for a moment, then gave her honest answer, "Yes, I think so. At least they do under Atua's guidance! Sometimes, it's hard to predict things, so we go for the best possible outcome and cross our fingers. He is a very strong God, but he is only most-knowing, not all-knowing. I can admit that. So if Atua can't tell whether we will have a rainy summer or a dry one, I'll say rainy, since that's way better for the agriculture. If I get it wrong... That's fine too. I'll just apologize for misinterpreting Atua's message."

"Don't you ever have to face consequences for doing that?" Tenko asked.

"Yes," Angie said, "I used to when I was still in training, that is. But all of Atua's prophets have needed to cover for him at some point, so the people are used to predictions sometimes being a little bit wrong, when they come from fully-sealed prophets! Nothing to worry about."

"That's fascinating," Tenko said, "I really want you to tell me more."

Angie giggled, "Sure I will, sometime! I think that you'd better understand if I used music, though. I became the Ultimate Pianist because music is so important on my island, you know. Someone who can create beautiful music is also someone who can become an especially accurate and powerful prophet, since both things are an expression of the power held within a soul."

Tenko was drooling again, just hearing about Angie's unique 'microculture', as she called it. Shuichi chuckled at the sight. Tenko was passionate about so many things, but she was devoted most of all to her Ultimate Talent.

"Oh, Saihara!" Angie got his attention, "If you were to convert, you'd be a powerful prophet too, I think. Like music, art is also a big expression of the power within your soul! Have you ever felt like you just can't draw anything but one specific thing?"

"All the time," Shuichi said, "After Yumeno died, I got this feeling that if I tried to draw anything at all, it would just end up being everyone I ever knew who died. That sort of thing happens pretty often, it's off-putting."

"Ahh, I see!" Angie said, pressing her hands together, "That says a lot about the strength of your soul. It means that you're really connected to other people, and their feelings. Even other people who are dead. You really good be a good prophet. Though, I guess that's not the sort of thing you'd want to do."

"Probably not," Shuichi said, "But thank you, Yonaga."


	84. Daily Life: Day Seven (Kokichi's Theory)

5

Once he was finished with breakfast, Shuichi put together another plate of food and brought it along with him back to the dorm building. He knocked on Kokichi's door, since he'd locked it on his way out. Kokichi opened it, and Shuichi stepped inside then handed him the plate, fork, knife, and napkin he'd grabbed for him, "Here you go."

"Thanks, Shuichi," Kokichi said with a nod as he went to sit down on the couch. Shuichi followed and sat down next to him, then pulled out two bottles from his bag and set them on the coffee table.

"I didn't know which you'd prefer, so I grabbed an orange juice and a grape soda," Shuichi said. He knew that grape soda was Kokichi's go-to beverage, but orange juice was something more fitting to have with breakfast, so he figured that he would create an option.

"Thanks." Kokichi smiled at him, then grabbed the orange juice, "I'll save the grape for later. So... What did I miss?"

"Monokuma added a new rule. If anyone skips a meal, the motives will still be announced over the PA system, so you can't miss them," Shuichi explained, "Also, my motives were given. So were Yonaga's. It wasn't anything too serious for either of us, unless somebody misconstrued something..."

"Did Monokuma mention your unique living situation?" Kokichi asked, frowning.

"No, he just made me admit it myself," Shuichi explained, "It said how I'd seen dead bodies before ever coming to the Ultimate Academy, and I had to explain why. I couldn't just lie and claim that wasn't a truth, but if I didn't explain, it could have been possible to think that I'd seen corpses for a much worse reason."

"I don't think anybody would have thought for a moment that you killed somebody, Shuichi," Kokichi noted as he started to eat, "And I'm glad that yours and Yonaga's weren't too serious... At least, as far as she told you, right?"

"Hm, yeah," Shuichi agreed, "She said that she didn't want to say what the lie was, but that it was fine because none of them really condemned her. It's kind of like Akamatsu's motives, how they didn't really do much to paint her in a negative light. Idabashi's were pretty harmless, too."

Kokichi thought for a minute before he spoke again, "Well, mine were pretty awful. Iruma's too. And if anyone had decided not to believe your explanation on why you've seen dead bodies, that'd paint a pretty bad target on you too. So maybe the ones which seem harmless are actually worse in some way, that's just getting covered up by the people receiving those motives."

"Huh, I didn't think of it that way," Shuichi said, "But, for Akamatsu... The only way that could be the case would be if she was lying to Shirogane and I all the way from the beginning. She told us about her past, because I opened up to them. Same with Shirogane. I can't imagine she would have thought up either of those truths to lie about, and it's not anything that really condemns her."

"You say that," Kokichi said, "And I agree with you, Akamatsu's telling the truth! But Monokuma's aimed these to make us into victims. Some of these motives might just put us at risk from one particular person. I mean, think about it. If Akamatsu had been wrong about a culprit... Who do you think would want her dead?"

"You're right," Shuichi said, "Monokuma might not be able to come up with general things, but can still try to target individuals, right...? So maybe one of the things that it said about Yonaga actually did strike a nerve with someone...?"

"Yeah," Kokichi nodded, "I think so. You saw that Idabashi's got close to causing a problem with Tojo, right?"

"No, I didn't notice," Shuichi said.

"Well, I did," Kokichi's voice was weak with worry, "It was specific targeting. If Tojo believed that Idabashi was lying about considering her a friend... Well, I didn't want to hear the motives, but now I'm too worried about what Yonaga's could mean to somebody. So what were hers...?"

"Uh, they were... When she was learning piano, she couldn't get the hang of chopsticks. She's never had a crisis of faith. She once stole from the church offertory. That's them. Like I said, she wouldn't say which one was the lie."

"Well..." Kokichi trailed off, thinking, "Mm, maybe I'm not the best person to try and think about this after all. I'm just jumping to all the worst conclusions..." He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut, "Why'd I have to go and get reminded of all that shit? I was able to bury it, you know. I woke up here and I thought, hey, maybe this is a fresh start. And I tried to sink it in the ocean, and it was just bubbling up sometimes, until Monokuma said that..."

"Kokichi," Shuichi whispered, reaching out and laying his palm against his back.

"If that bear said those things, and you weren't here? Don't know what I would have done, actually. It's easy to pretend. Pretending's half the job of being a magician, and a hundred percent of my job being the Ultimate Magician," Kokichi gave a bitter chuckle, "But then that shitty bear just had to go and say that, had to remind me that I'm still the same Kokichi Ouma who had to do all that. I can show you that version of me, but I can't... Show the others. I can't face them, the way that I actually am. I just need some time to learn to pretend again."

"I understand," Shuichi said, "You'll skip dinner too, then? I'll bring you a plate. Monokuma will give the motives over the PA system, though, so you'll have to hear whatever it says tonight."

"Yeah, I can do that," Kokichi said, "I'll be in here, anyway. If anything gets to me, it doesn't really matter. Nobody will see it. If it's real bad, I'll just turn you away when you come to bring me dinner. I might just need to be alone."

Shuichi nodded, "That makes sense. But if you do want company, don't hesitate. You trust me, right?"

"Entirely," Kokichi confirmed, "Don't worry. If I want you here, then I'll tell you. I know there's no point in trying to hide my worst side when it comes to you."


	85. Daily Life: Day Seven (POV Swap; Ryoma's Theory)

4

Once breakfast was finished, Kaede noticed as Kirumi helped Shuichi put together a plate of food to bring back to Kokichi. Once Shuichi was out of earshot, she stepped up to Kirumi and tapped her shoulder, scolding her, "Hey, Tojo! What happened to taking time off today?"

"Huh? Well, I'm still helping Iruma out with meals. It took some convincing first thing this morning, sure, but I got her to agree not to jump right back in to all of her work straight away," Kirumi explained, then looked over to the door where Miu and Kiibo were waiting for her, "I'll see you at dinnertime, Akamatsu!"

With that, she went to join the others and go to Miu's lab. Kaede watched her go, then turned back to who she expected to be the only person left at her table. Much to her surprise, Tsumugi was not the only one seated there, but Ryoma as well. Kaede sat back down, across from him and next to her, "Hoshi?"

"Yes, that is my name," Ryoma said, hands folded in front of him, "I was waiting until we could be mostly alone. Chabashira and Gokuhara have already gone to the tennis court. Yonaga and Amami, meanwhile, disappeared... Somewhere. In any case, I'd like to ask you something. What's your honest opinion of Idabashi, you two? I trust your judgment above anyone else's."

"My judgment...?" Kaede asked, blinking a few times in surprise at the strange wording before she gave an answer, "Well, I wouldn't be the authority on the nature of a person, myself, that would be Chabashira. But, she's also biased against Idabashi because of what happened at the first trial. I'd say that... He's a good person, definitely. I think that he might be overextending himself, though. Trying to do too much, and letting it hurt his perception of others around him. Something like that, but he said he's working on that anyway. So I'd have to say that, most of all, he's trustworthy."

"Thank you," Ryoma said, then turned to Tsumugi, "And you, Shirogane?"

"Well, I can't say I know a lot about human nature, since I'm just a scientist... But, Idabashi's got all the qualities of a good leader, I think. He knows how to take charge, and he tries his best to support all of us, even when it's at his own expense. It's a little bit sad, actually, that he's throwing himself into this... But, I'll continue to believe in him, because I know that he has a good heart and great intentions behind it."

"I see," Ryoma said, then glanced around, "And, your opinion of Ouma, by comparison, would be...?"

"I don't dislike Ouma," Kaede said, "I also think he's a good person with good motivations, but I couldn't follow him as a leader. He's an entertainer. Somebody needs more than charisma to be able to lead a group to success, I think. Also, I'm kind of worried about him now. After those motives... Is he really okay?"

"Likewise," Ryoma said, "I aligned myself with him initially because I trusted in his motivations, but it's a little bit hard to keep doing that now that I'm seeing him experience so much weakness. I'm not blaming him, I'm just worried about him. More than I'm worried about Idabashi experiencing stress. I've come to believe that a leadership position would be more harmful than helpful to Ouma."

"Why are you telling us this, and not Idabashi or Tojo?" Tsumugi asked.

"Because I'd like you two to help me make the others realize this," Ryoma said, looking between the two of them, "Tojo and Idabashi are too explicitly focused on the politics, but somebody might listen to you if you help me. We just need to convince somebody that Ouma's not going to benefit from a position of power."

"Now that you mention it," Tsumugi said, "After his motives, last night... He seemed hit pretty hard. I wouldn't think myself fit to lead anybody, so you're probably right that it would be better for him not to have a responsibility like that... Your friends will understand, right?"

"I think so," Ryoma said, "They say that they want to believe in him, which I understand, but sometimes loyalty can blind people to the truth of a situation. Because my friends have so much faith in Ouma, they're failing to think if becoming student council president would be bad for him. Or, if it would be bad for us if he did... And now, the vote's tied. I need to convince just one more person."

"Hoshi," Tsumugi said, "Do you think that Ouma's killed someone before?"

"I didn't at first," Ryoma said, shaking his head, "But I was talking with Yonaga, and she said something which made me realize that it had to be a truth, because she told me which statement would have to be a lie," He explained, "She noticed something. She said that if it was true that Ouma used sex to get ahead, he wouldn't have been so shy about letting Saihara know he had a crush. Somebody like that would have confidence in his own charm, and Ouma obviously didn't."

"Yonaga notices a lot, doesn't she...?" Kaede noted, then focused in on the situation at hand, "So, what do you think is the situation? Are you holding it against him that he might have killed somebody before? There's all sorts of reasons that might have happened, you know. It could have been an accident-"

"Yes, or he could have snapped," Ryoma said with a solemn look, "Something could have happened, and he broke and killed them. The thing is, I don't expect he'll kill anybody here. And I am not holding it against him. However... If something like that has happened before, can you blame me for being a little bit afraid to stress the guy out?"

"We really can't fault you," Tsumugi admitted, "But, you know... If Yonaga's the one who helped you realize this, then wouldn't she agree with you? Do you really need our help?"

"Yonaga doesn't listen to logic," Ryoma said, "She just does whatever Atua tells her, and apparently, Atua still wants her to follow Ouma, even with this new information."

"Speaking of new information," Kaede said, "Yonaga didn't try to refute any of her motive, did she? Do you have any idea why she might have done that? I'm afraid I don't talk to her very often."

"I don't have a clue," Ryoma said, "I can't even think of a theory on which one could be the lie, when it comes to her. There is one thing she said once, though, that makes me think that I do know one of the truths."

"And that would be?" Tsumugi prompted.

"It surprised me," Ryoma said, "So I actually remember the exact words that she said. _Please feel free to take a seat anywhere but on the organ's bench! I simply can't stand to play with anyone sitting beside me but Atua_ , were the words."

"Ah, she said that?" Kaede asked, blinking in surprise, then gave a slow nod, "Then, that means that it's the truth that she can't play Chopsticks, isn't it? Everyone knows that Chopsticks is one of the most basic piano pieces, but it's also a duet that requires somebody else to be on the bench."

"So that means," Tsumugi said, "Yonaga's lie is either that she's stolen from offertory, or that she's never had a crisis of faith, right? It doesn't really matter, though. Why would we need to know that about her? It just feels like we're being nosy with some of these motives now, and that's just awful. Kind of makes me worry that they'll actually end up as motives for a murder, you know...?"

"You shouldn't worry," Kaede said, "I promise. Nothing is going to happen, Shirogane," Kaede grabbed for her hand and offered a reassuring smile, "I mean, we can't just let those plans we had for the future go to waste. I'm going to hold you to that, you know. You and me, and Saihara. Maybe Ouma too? Or who knows, everyone here. We'll all go to space."

"I'll make it happen," Tsumugi smiled back, "You can count on me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, there's a meeting between Korekiyo and Maki now available over in the Lost Chapters ;3


	86. Daily Life: Day Seven (Fourth Motives)

3

Kaede didn't see Shuichi again until it was time for the Book Club meeting. She expected that, though; She knew that he'd probably gone to spend time with Kokichi in the dorm room. He seemed fine himself, when they met up in her lab. She believed what he said about his own motive; There was no reason for her to think that he was lying.

Book club was uneventful. Kaede and Tsumugi knew better than to press Shuichi on any information about his boyfriend. Maybe in a few more days if they still hadn't heard from Kokichi, but both of them completely understood the need to be alone. No matter what the truth was, if Kokichi needed time to himself, then he needed time to himself.

Once the meeting was finished, Angie came to fetch them on her own this time. She opened the door, then addressed them all, "Hey, it's dinnertime. Tojo's heated some of Iruma's cooking up again."

"Yonaga," Tsumugi addressed her as she stood up, "You and Ouma have spent a lot of time together, haven't you? Don't you usually hang out while we're busy with these book club meetings?"

"Oh, we've done that a few times," Angie agreed, leaning against the doorframe, "Ouma's fun to talk to, actually! But, you're gonna ask me about him, right? I'm not about to tell you what I think about his motives, since we're the two people so far who haven't refuted our own lies."

"I don't need to ask you," Kaede said, standing up and approaching her, "Hoshi told us what you told him."

Angie hesitated a moment, then spoke again, "Well, darn. I guess I gotta tell you now, I do have a theory, but it's different than the one I told Hoshi. Monokuma's kinda weird, right? It didn't say that Ouma slept to the top of his field or anything, it went full-out vulgar. So, I'm not gonna say anything specific, but maybe it's possible after all. The word meaning there is _kind of_ different."

"Yonaga," Shuichi hissed through his teeth at her, "If you've figured it out, please just keep it."

"Huh?" Angie blinked a few times, then giggled, "Okay, so maybe I figured it out, with Atua's help. I'll shut up, though. The truth is really bad," Her eyes glazed over, "Oh, yeah, really bad. I know how he feels for sure. I got so lucky, Monokuma didn't open up the floodgates like it did for him!"

"...Let's go to dinner," Tsumugi said, brushing past Angie to go toward the Dining Hall. The others followed suit, and once reaching the Dining Hall, all took their usual seats. Tsumugi knew that going to the meal just meant that she could end up with another chance at having her own secrets revealed to everybody, but now that Monokuma had instituted that new rule, there was no escape.

In the Dining Hall, Kirumi had already set out plates for everybody. Ryoma had sought her out during the day, and now had a plate at that table instead. Tenko seemed to be a bit betrayed, as did Gonta, but the others just let it slide. Nobody was ready to start another fight when a motive was about to be delivered. That would be enough to think about.

And, thinking of that devil seemed enough to make it appear. Monokuma was there and ready to carry through on its promise of brand new misery each and every meal, "You bastards had such a lame day today! I mean, not only did nobody get killed or anything, but you hardly even did normal stuff. It's almost like all this despair is making you lethargic. And I see Ouma's still missing, damn. Well, I'll send it out over the intercoms too!"

"So," Monokuma continued, "This evening's lovely victims are the ones I was originally gonna give you this morning, before I decided that Saihara should be punished for finding the loophole. And the first of those two is Ryoma Hoshi, the mystery man who just changed political sides!"

Ryoma shrunk under just that accusation as the bear continued, "Ryoma Hoshi's two truths and a lie... go go! Ryoma Hoshi actually does not have an Ultimate Talent. Ryoma Hoshi is the oldest person here. Ryoma Hoshi has had a near-death experience in the past."

"Huh..." Ryoma noted, looking around the table, "Well, I suppose any of those could be true. I wouldn't know, since I don't remember what my talent is," Ryoma said, "As for being the oldest, we'd just have to line up everyone's birthdays and figure that out. Then for that last bit, it really just depends on what's considered a near-death experience. Monokuma, that was weak. Surely, there's some worse information about me."

"Upupu! Who's to say these things aren't totally terrible? I'm sure somebody here knows the secret meaning behind these statements and is definitely going to start planning your murder. Oh, or maybe they'll realize it in the future," Monokuma said, "I mean, one of your secrets I could reveal is kind of something that would reflect badly on me too, so I can't use it..."

"That's not reassuring," Ryoma said.

"Anyway! The other victim of this evening is... Upupupupupupupu," It made the noise as if it were an imitation drum roll, "Tenko Chabashira! Congratulations. Let's jump right in. Tenko Chabashira has been subject to abuse since her youth. Tenko Chabashira was raised by somebody other than her own family. Tenko Chabashira has gotten away with a murder within the scope of a killing game."

Tenko froze.

Angie came to her rescue, "Hey, there's no way... No, Chabashira wouldn't kill anybody! I know, from Atua's guidance. Chabashira would not be able to live with herself if she murdered somebody."

"Well, why don't you discuss among yourselves?" Monokuma said, then waved, "Bye bye!"

Tenko still didn't move. Kaede turned and watched her intently, noting that she seemed to be completely in shock that Monokuma said such a thing. Kaede knew which was the lie, of course. As long as she knew her own lie, she would know Tenko's lie, even if Tenko hadn't already disclosed to her what those truths were. So Kaede came to her defense as well.

"The only way that Chabashira could have gotten away with something would be if I was also wrong about a culprit. We already decided that's not true."

"Are you sure, Akamatsu?" Miu asked, then looked to Tenko, "Maybe the one who flipped Maki's switch was meant to be the real blackened. And maybe that person was Chabashira, right?"


	87. Daily Life: Day Seven (Tension)

2

 

"No. No, Iruma, that's not true," Kaede said, shaking her head, but she couldn't deny that it was actually a possibility if Miu put it that way, "Monokuma couldn't use a situation like that, because we're not allowed to talk about who flipped the switch. Nobody can say that they can, truthfully or not."

"Maybe that's exactly its intention," Kirumi said, holding onto her chin, "If it gives us leading lies like that, and gives us no real way of proving it... Then we'll start to distrust each other even more. Maybe once all the motives are on the table, they'll all connect like Akamatsu's and Chabashira's seem to."

"Even if we can't prove that it's a lie Chabashira got away with murder," Angie said, "Can't we prove the other things? And for all we know about Ouma, Monokuma might just like putting us on edge by branding our friends murderers when they aren't!"

"Ouma was smart not to try and say which one was a lie, though," Rantaro said, "Only one of the things which Monokuma said about him was harmless, and a truth we all were already aware of. Chabashira seems to be in a similar position..."

"No, it's..." Tenko trailed off, then looked over and locked eyes with Kaede, "Akamatsu, help me. Please..."

"Right," Kaede understood her cue, then stood up and addressed everyone, "Chabashira disclosed information to me prior to the reveal of her motive, as she thought it would be easily to admit her secrets to an individual than say it to all of you. The lie is that she got away with murder. She already informed me that those other two statements are the truth."

"You say that, but couldn't you just be covering for yourself?" Kirumi asked, "Though, I don't believe you are, we do need to look at the possibilities. It is suspicious that you would be the one with the answers."

"It is, but Chabashira and I had no way of knowing that our motives would be tied to each other in any way. It's just an unfortunate coincidence that I'm the one she disclosed to. I promise I'm telling the truth," Kaede said.

"I believe you, Akamatsu," Angie said, then turned to Tenko, "After all, Chabashira. For those other statements to be the truth, that makes sense to me. It's the sort of person that you are, right? You wanna protect people cause you couldn't protect yourself when you were little?"

"That's... That's right, Yonaga," Tenko gave a rough nod, wrapping her arms around herself, "Geeze, how do you know so many things, huh? That keeps happening."

"Atua, duh," Angie said, pressing her hands together, "Anyway, Chabashira. I'll choose to believe in you. I don't care what anybody else says or thinks. I'm on your side," She looked around the room, "And that's my decision, not Atua's. I'm going to stay around Chabashira as much as I can, for as long as you guys suspect her! And Shirogane, you'll be with Akamatsu? We can't let anything happen to our friends just because their motives happen to line up..."

"Are you accusing the rest of us of wanting to kill them for this?" Miu questioned.

"Accusing? No. But if you were under suspicion for something like this, wouldn't you want someone you trust to stay by your side so that there'd have to be a witness if anything _did_ happen?" Angie said, then stood up and walked over behind Tenko's chair, "Chabashira. I'll sleep on your couch. Need me to wake up for any reason, don't touch me, yell in my ear, okay?"

"Yeah," Tenko stood up as well and offered Angie a soft smile, "Thank you, Yonaga."

"I'll always protect you," Angie said, "Because you're somebody worth protecting."

With that, Tenko and Angie both left the Dining Hall. Tsumugi moved closer to Kaede and grabbed onto her arm, "This is kind of scary, isn't it?"

"Shirogane," Miu scowled at her, "You don't seriously think I'd...?"

"If you thought that Akamatsu and Chabashira were responsible for Maki's death," Kirumi said, "Then who knows? Even the best people can do bad things for the sake of somebody that they care about," She sounded almost like she was speaking from experience.

"It is probably smart to buddy up, until we all have enough time to cool down," Kiibo said, "I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but these motives are evidently putting all of us on edge."

"A fair point," Ryoma said, "It's hard to keep a brave front in the face of things like this. Iruma, you had the first motives delivered, and you don't even know which statements of it are true. You haven't had enough time off, and Monokuma is trying to push you over the edge."

"It's trying to inflict despair on us all," Kiibo said, "And we need to push back against it in any way that we can!"

"I agree," Kaede said, "Monokuma can only give so many motives for murder. I'm sure that if these don't pan out, it will try something else, but if we outlast all of that, then it will just have to stop trying to make us kill each other. We'll make sure of it."

"Yes," Miu said with a nod, "I... Understand. Yeah, I get it. You're probably right, the stress is still getting to me like it did to Idabashi. One and a half days off isn't enough. I'm really tired..." She sighed, standing up, "I'm going back to my room, to get some sleep."

"That sounds like a good plan. I'll do the same," Ryoma said, then looked to the others, "I'd recommend you all do as well, honestly. We could all do with a good night's rest, I can only imagine. I'm exhausted."

"Now that you mention it," Kaede said, "I am tired. Really tired," She stood up, and Tsumugi did as well, still holding tight to her arm, "We'll head back toward the dorms," Once she and Tsumugi were out of the room, she said quietly, "So, did staying in my room help the nightmares?"

"Yes, it did," Tsumugi said, "So is it fine to repeat that plan?"

"Of course."

 

 

~-~-~-~-

Hi! The author here, again. I told myself I would wait until the end of this to throw in some shameless self-promotion, but I just can't help it... [ Because my NaNoWriMo project is, for a limited time, available free on kindle! Click Here! ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YC3WKN)

(I'd actually consider this my second-best original work yet... my best is also free so just, ask if you'd like to see that? And if you like my writing here it'd mean a lot to me if you could check out some of my own precious characters too. Thanks for your time and sorry for intruding on the story! <3)


	88. Daily Life: Day Seven (Secrets)

1

 

Kaede and Tsumugi returned to Kaede's room. Kaede wouldn't say it, but she was actually quite happy to have Tsumugi sharing the room with her; Not only was she glad to help Tsumugi's nightmares, but having somebody else in the same room kept her grounded in time more easily.

Once arriving back in the room, Kaede stretched her arms out above her head, "I'm really sleepy, but I think I'm going to get a shower first. Can you knock on the door if I'm in there for more than an hour?"

"Sure thing," Tsumugi said with a soft chuckle, "I'll get my shower in the morning," She wandered into the room and opened Kaede's closet, "Is it okay if I borrow some of your pajamas? I noticed last night that your style seems comfier than the ones I ended up with in my room."

"Yeah, you can," Kaede said, "It's weird, isn't it? For all that the people running this place seem to know about us, we ended up with something other than our favorite sort of pajamas?"

Tsumugi couldn't help but agree, "It is strange. Do you think that they didn't know, or was this on purpose?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Kaede said, "I think there's too many other things to think about, though, to focus too much on this. I'll see you when I'm done in the shower, then," Kaede turned and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind herself. She already had a pair of pajamas sitting in the room. She turned the water on, then waited with her hand under the spray until it warmed up.

She stepped in, and actually took some time to enjoy herself before shampooing her hair, given she had Tsumugi there to remind her if she was taking too long. While she was in the middle of rinsing her hair, she heard the distinctive sound of the announcements beginning.

"Hey, you bastards! It's nighttime, nighttime, nighttime! I don't know what else to say, since a bunch of you are already sound asleep... I could just keep on being extra loud until I woke you all up, but I'm just not that cruel. Murder? Sure, but waking people up when they just want to get some rest is a line that even I won't cross!"

Kaede scoffed to hear that, and she knew she couldn't relax anymore. She finished up in the shower and stepped out, put her pajamas on, then returned to the dorm room. As soon as she was back in the room, she noted that Tsumugi, in matching pajamas, was already fast asleep on top of the bed's blankets, as if she hadn't actually meant to fall asleep yet.

She couldn't fight back a soft, amused smile to see it. She approached Tsumugi and touched her shoulder gently, but she didn't stir, so Kaede just did her best to adjust the blankets and tuck her into them, then climbed in next to her on the other side. Tsumugi was facing the center of the bed, and Kaede lay facing her, watching her.

She hesitated, then reached for Tsumugi's hand and held onto it as she drifted off to sleep herself. She was so exhausted, sleep landed on her like a heavy blanket draped over her entire body. As soon as she was lying down, sleep came much more quickly than she was expecting it would.

Kaede woke up to her cheek being poked at. She opened her eyes slowly with a groan, looking up to find that Tsumugi was poking her to try and wake her. She spoke to her, "Uh... Morning, Shirogane."

"Yes, technically, still," Tsumugi said, glancing at the clock, "For two more hours. I just woke up, and we somehow slept right through the morning announcement. It's already ten."

"How did we do that...?" Kaede asked, sitting up, "Uh... Does that mean that we missed the morning motives? Tojo and Amami..."

Tsumugi blinked a few times, "What? Those two?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm still half asleep..." Kaede mumbled, rubbing at her eyes, "I thought those two were the only ones left, but there's two others too... Yours, and Gokuhara's also. Shirogane," She reached both arms out for her, wrapping them around her shoulders and pressing her face against her neck, "I don't want yours to happen."

"I told you, you're not doing anything for my sake," Tsumugi said, bringing her arms up to hold Kaede as well.

"It has nothing to do with your sake, Shirogane," Kaede said, "It has everything to do with me. I don't want them to know those things about you. I don't want them to think anything wrong about you, either. I want to hold onto these things that only I know about you... I want to know you better than them."

"The only way that my secrets won't come out is if somebody's murdered, Kaede," Tsumugi said, sliding her arms along the top of Kaede's shoulders to pull back and look her in the eyes, "I don't want it to happen again. I don't want to keep my secret if it means someone gets hurt... besides, Akamatsu. I have more secrets than that," She smirked, "There's always something else, that only you could know about me. But I'd like something from you too."

"I don't have any secrets left," Kaede said.

Tsumugi chuckled, continuing to draw one hand back to cup it against Kaede's cheek, "Now, that's a lie if you ever told one."

"Really now? What sort of secret do you still think I could have?" Kaede asked.

"I dunno," Tsumugi shrugged, "Secrets aren't just about the past, though. They can be about feelings too."

"Secrets about feelings?" Kaede asked, then furrowed her brow, "Come on, Shirogane. My feelings are hardly secret at all."

"That's true, isn't it...?" Tsumugi asked, leaning in, then froze, so close that Kaede could feel her breath on her lips when she spoke, "Kaede. Kaede, you won't disappear, right? You won't leave me behind, you'll never leave me behind...?"

"I'll stay with you," Kaede promised, then closed the distance between them.

Monokuma's voice interrupted them.

"Okay, finally, everyone's awake! You idiots went to sleep so early last night, but then a whole bunch of you slept through my morning announcement. And breakfast too! I can handle making an announcement with one person asleep, but this was just too much. It's almost like you bastards don't even want to hear my motives... Well, anyway! Time for the morning motives!"


	89. Daily Life: Day Eight (Fifth Motives)

0

 

"Goddammit..." Kaede muttered, looking up at the monitor where Monokuma was. It showed a picture of Kirumi on the screen before it spoke again.

"First off, we've got a motive to victimize our good friend Kirumi Tojo! She's so secretive, this is bound to be a trip," Monokuma laughed, "Without further ado. Kirumi Tojo has severe panic attacks at the mere mention of certain animes! Kirumi Tojo has watched the entirety of Bleach! Kirumi Tojo was once betrayed by someone she thought was a good friend!"

"Huh..." Tsumugi mumbled, narrowing her eyes at the monitor, "I never would have thought any of those things to be true about her, except for maybe watching all of Bleach. That's really tame, though. Why would Monokuma mention that?"

Kaede's heart sank, "It's not to make her a victim, it's to encourage her to become a murderer. She's so secretive, she doesn't want anyone to know these things. The thing about Bleach is the obvious lie, it's because the first one is a truth. That must be one of the animes that Tojo can't handle hearing about."

"...You're right," Tsumugi muttered, not turning her eyes away from the monitor as the image of Kirumi switched to one of Rantaro instead.

"Next up, you guessed it, Rantaro Amami's two truths and a lie!" Monokuma's voice filled the room as it pointed at the photograph, "Here! We! Go! Rantaro Amami never actually disabled M4-K1's update. Rantaro Amami has withheld information of a violent crime. Rantaro Amami has attempted suicide."

Kaede was taken aback by these statements. Did Monokuma have some kind of vendetta against certain people? While some of the motives had been completely harmless, there were others like Kokichi's, Miu's, and now Rantaro's that were awful all around, a corner that couldn't be escaped from.

"Amami...? No way..." Tsumugi said, quiet as she stared at her own hands, "None of that. Ah, there's no way that he lied about Maki, she would have known, but... what sort of crime could he have covered up? And why would he... I mean, he was just mentioning how he's safe from dying, if he wanted to have that confidence, why would he have ever..."

"I don't know," Kaede said, standing up and making her way towards the door, "We wouldn't know, though. We have to talk to Amami himself to get an answer. And see if Tojo is okay."

"Right," Tsumugi nodded, standing as well to follow Kaede, "That's so... I was starting to worry less, but now I'm scared again, what it might say about me. Kaede, I was ready to have those things revealed, that you said it would probably say about me... But now I'm not so sure."

"Tsumugi," Kaede said, grabbing her hand before she opened the door to leave the dorm room, "It's okay. Whatever Monokuma says, I'll protect you."

"I know you will," Tsumugi said, then turned to see Angie standing in the center of the lobby, and called out to her, "Morning, Yonaga."

"Oh, morning," Angie waved to them, then giggled, "Geeze, was Monokuma right about everyone sleeping together...? Heh, just kidding. I get it. There's someone here that I like, too! Anyway, even though we missed breakfast, we need to eat. We can discuss those new motives there, right?"

"Yeah," Kaede agreed, then looked around, "Were you the other one who slept late?"

"I dunno. Actually, as far as I can tell, nobody else has left their rooms yet. I came out here to the lobby just before that announcement happened," Angie explained, "Chabashira was still asleep anyway, when I left. She should be out in a minute."

"I see," Kaede said, furrowing her brow, "How did all of us end up so tired, though?"

Angie shrugged, "Maybe there's a flu or something going around that we didn't realize is going around, that made us all tired."

Tsumugi nodded, "Oh, that would make sense. I have been feeling kind of sick lately, but I just assumed it was an emotional thing. If the flu was going around, though..."

"Mm, yeah," Angie agreed, then glanced back toward Tenko's room, "Once Chabashira joins us... I want a bagel," She paused for a moment, "Two bagels, actually. When I left with Chabashira last night, I hadn't eaten much of dinner."

"Yonaga. You're trying to stick your neck out for everybody, huh?" Kaede said, "That's admirable. I'm glad that you're here."

"It's all I could do," Angie said, "I'm hoping that this hectic time for all of us comes to an end soon, and it can be peaceful again. These motives are really taking their toll on everyone."

"You included?" Kaede asked.

"Yeah," Angie said, crossing her arms over her chest, "Look, I know that you figured out one of my truths, even though I said I didn't want to refute any of the statements. Even if you don't know the reason why... I said it didn't open the floodgates for me like it did for Ouma, but that's just because Saihara was there and I know he wouldn't wanna hear that I was just doing a better job at hiding how I was messed up."

"Yonaga..." Tsumugi muttered.

"But!" She exclaimed, plastering a grin to her face which was so absurdly falsified, "I'll be okay! I have Atua at my side, and most people don't have that. I'll take some of his strength to keep me going, then share it with everybody I can."

Before either Tsumugi or Kaede could respond, there was the sound of a door opening, and Tenko stepped out into the lobby a moment later, "Morning, everyone. I'd say good morning, but those motives..."

"Yeah. We can discuss them once we've had something to eat," Kaede said, moving toward the doors out of the dorm building, "Let's go," She almost forgot she'd been holding Tsumugi's hand, as she pulled her along outside. Once she was outside of the doors, though, she froze, squinting at... Something, out in the courtyard.

"What is that?" Tsumugi asked, and Kaede let go of her hand, running forward to stand at the top of the stairs, looking down at where the object sat right in front of that Shrine which hid the courtroom. She was in enough shock that she waited there at the top of the stairs, too afraid to get any closer, long enough that the other girls caught up to her. staying a few steps back.

It was a box, painted in bright colors. Kaede immediately knew that it was one of the tricks from Kokichi's lab. The box of swords trick. On its own, a thing like that wasn't so intimidating, but it wasn't where it should be. This was a weird location. Beyond weird, and Kaede's eyes immediately went to a few things about it. The swords looked like they were straight through the wood, the holes intended ignored in favor of making new ones.

That defeated the idea of the trick. Not to mention, the one other strange thing that made Kaede stop in her tracks. The pool. The pool of blood leaking out from under the cabinet's doors. Her breath caught in her throat. Kokichi...? Who else could it be, when he'd refused to deny such rancid accusations as Monokuma hurled at him, and killed in such a gruesome, evidently ironic method?

Kaede took one step forward. Froze. Another step down, it felt like she was trying to walk through molasses. She had no idea how long it took, but she reached the ground level. Reached out for the cabinet. Her hand closed around the handle, and she pulled. Pulled, then let go, then fell backwards, staring up at the body. She was going to be horrified no matter what. But she wasn't expecting this.

She never could have expected this.

There, impaled straight through by the blades.

Shuichi.


	90. Deadly Life: Day Eight (Why You in Denial)

"What...?" Angie was the first one who could make comment on what she saw, "What? No, no no no. No. Not Saihara. No way! This can't be happening, I'm having a nightmare. It's not... Why him?"

"Hey, shut up, you pathetic little wench, I have an announcement to make!" Monokuma appeared, snapping at Angie, then it spoke and its voice came out of all of the monitors as well, "Hey everyone! A body has just been discovered! That's just great. Anyway, get on out of those rooms, it's right out in the courtyard!"

Kaede couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene. Tsumugi sunk down behind her and reached out, holding onto her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her, though in the pressure of her fingertips Kaede could tell that she was just as shocked at the scene in front of their eyes.

"O-Ouma can't... He can't see this," Angie said, backing away from the scene then turning to run to the dorms to intercept him. She breezed past Rantaro, Miu, and Ryoma as she went. Kaede had turned her head just enough to see, and it looked like Angie said something to Rantaro, but she couldn't tell what.

The crime scene was still in the corner of her vision, she still couldn't pull herself completely away.

"Why him...?" Tenko questioned, covering her face with both hands, "I don't understand, there was nothing... Nothing about his motives that would have made somebody want him dead, really? Would there be?"

Rantaro answered, having gotten close enough, staring blankly straight at the body, "If anybody didn't believe the reason he'd seen dead bodies before this, but I thought that everybody believed it. There's nothing in Saihara's motives that should have made him a target..."

"There wasn't," Ryoma said, "There's no reason Saihara should have been a target, but there was one thing. He was close to a potential murderer."

"Hoshi..." Tenko hissed through her hands, "Are you implying what I think you are?"

"We don't know what Ouma's capable of," Ryoma said, "And regardless of which statement was a lie, Saihara was foolish to continue trusting him to the extent that he did. I was willing to overlook it all and put my faith in Ouma, but it was still in the back of my mind that he was dangerous. He is dangerous. No matter what the truth was."

"What do you mean?" Tenko questioned, turning to face him. She crouched to grab his shoulders, giving him a light shake, "First you turn your back on him, and now you say this shit!? Who the Hell are you, and what have you done with the Hoshi I knew?"

"You barely knew me, Chabashira. I believed in Ouma right up until he gave me a reason not to," Ryoma said, "I have reason to be suspicious of everybody's actions in this place. Anyway, think about it. Had he slept with people to get ahead in his field, then he easily could have been manipulating Saihara. Had he killed somebody in the past, then why would he hesitate to do it again? For all we know, he planned this from the beginning."

"Why would he do that...?" Tenko asked.

Ryoma gave a shrug, "Maybe he actually does want something from the outside world. Did you ever think of that? That was the very first motive Monokuma gave to us. We all called it worthless, but..."

"You shut up," Tenko said, staring him down, "I believe in Ouma. I know he never would have done something like this, especially not to Saihara. If you were better at reading people, asshole, you'd realize he loved him more than he ever expected to love anyone or anything."

"And you don't think you could be wrong about that?" Ryoma asked, "Because I guess you were wrong about me."

Tenko shoved him over, knocking him onto his back, then stood up and shouted to everyone present, "I'm going to start investigating. Nobody fucking talk to me," And with that, she stormed off.

"Hoshi," Rantaro said, helping him to his feet, "You should know better than to provoke her like that."

"I had to say it," Ryoma said, "I don't know yet if I believe what I said, except that Saihara shouldn't have trusted Ouma so much, but Chabashira needed to hear it. She keeps putting blind faith in people."

"Is blind faith really so bad...?" Kaede finally managed, through tears which were not quite sobs, "I want to trust... I don't want to think that anyone could do something like this..." She wiped her eyes, "But as the Ultimate Detective, I have to think that _everyone_ is capable of this."

"It's awful..." Tsumugi muttered, pressed her face against Kaede's back.

"Oh. Oh my God. Oh my-" Kirumi's voice was heard, steadily panicking. She sounded as if she already panicked once this morning, and this was just mounting her anxieties. It was less composed than anybody had ever seen her. Kiibo was right there with her and grabbed her in a firm embrace, trying to help calm her down. It didn't seem to help, "No! No. No, this can't be happening, this can't..."

"Gonta... Not understand," The last person who hadn't yet been involved gave his own dismay.

"It happened..." Kaede said, swallowing her tears as she gently pushed Tsumugi away from her and stood back up, looking around, "You should all go. I'll investigate the body and compare it to what the Monopad says," She covered her own mouth as she looked at it again, then turned back and glared at her peers, "Get out of here. Only one of us still needs to be seeing this."

"I'm staying here," Ryoma said after the others had gone, "Everyone else should go, but I'm staying. I'll keep an eye on you, Akamatsu. You were also close to Saihara, I need to make sure you're conducting this investigation in an objective manner."

"What suddenly makes you the expert on objectivity?" Kaede asked.

"Akamatsu. I'll tell you one of my truths," Ryoma said, staring right at her, "Because I've determined, even if I don't trust you not to be the killer, I can trust you with this information. I am the oldest one here, and my birthday doesn't matter. I'm two _years_ older than all of you. I am the one who received a different set of memories about the Killing Games. My own personal memories. From the ones I participated in before."


	91. Deadly Life: Day Eight (Bias)

"You mean..." Kaede trailed off.

"Yes," Ryoma confirmed, "I've been in two Killing Games before this one, and I survived both of them. I don't remember names, or faces... Nothing like that, but I do remember one thing. We all trusted somebody to lead the investigations, and they used that to their advantage to almost get away with a murder and kill us all. So forgive me if, now that I have those memories, I'd prefer to keep an eye on you."

"I-I understand," Kaede said, "But, Hoshi, does that mean you know who's responsible for putting us here? Who made us do this, why Saihara had to die...?"

"I don't" Ryoma said, "I don't have any memory of who turned out to be responsible for the previous killing games. Anyway, what's more important right now is that we find out who did this."

"You're right," Kaede said, and approached the body. She took a deep breath and took note of the injuries, then reached for Shuichi's bag. She had to tear it on the sword through it, to get it out of there. Her stomach turned at the sound of the fabric ripping, and as she held the bag, she thought back to the very first case. She'd had Shuichi hold the antidotes in this bag, it was thanks to him that Kirumi was able to be saved. She couldn't think about these things right now, about the tragedy of the situation. She just needed to reassemble the happenings. Find out why this happened to Shuichi.

In his bag, there wasn't much. He seemed to have left most of his things behind, but there were a few items in the bottom of it. A scrap of paper, and a few pencils. Kaede imagined only the first was important, and pulled it out. It had been folded, so she opened it up to find a note scribbled on it, which she read, "Hey Saihara. I don't feel like eating dinner right now, but meet me in my lab just before nighttime, okay? -Ouma."

Kaede thought there was something off about this note, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She tucked it away as evidence, and pulled out her Monopad to check the information on it. Cause of death, impalement. Time of death, 0145. The time seemed strange, but what worried her more was the cause of death. She'd held out hope that the impalement was done postmortem, but if it was the cause of death... Was Shuichi conscious when it happened? Who would do something like that? The info on her Monopad reflected the scene she saw, but she didn't want to believe it.

Even so, did she have any other choice? She took a deep breath and put the Monopad back. If that note was true, and if Shuichi had done as it told him to, then all signs pointed to Kokichi's Lab being the place to investigate next. Between the note and the sword cabinet, there had to be some sort of evidence in that room. Kaede turned to walk back up the stairs, but Ryoma got her attention again, "Akamatsu, wait."

"Hm?" Kaede turned back to face him, "Do you need something?"

"I understand that you're torn up over this, but I think you missed something," Ryoma said, pointing back towards the box, "Well, I don't think you saw it, anyway. There's blood on the hilt of one of the swords, too."

"On the hilt?" Kaede asked, walking back to check it out for herself. Ryoma was right; Just one of the swords was actually bloodied outside of the box. It wasn't like somebody with a bloody hand had grabbed onto it, though. It was spattered, similarly to how the walls on the inside of the box were. She took note of it, "It's like this one was used before it went through the box..."

"That could be important, right?" Ryoma asked, "Are you sure you're up to investigating this? I understand that Saihara was a good friend of yours. I'm sure somebody else could head up the investigation if you fear you won't be thorough enough."

"No..." Kaede muttered, "Maybe I really am a selfish person, but I need to do this myself. I have to avenge Saihara, I have to find out who killed him. If I can't do that much, then what good am I? I'm going to investigate Ouma's lab now..." She forced a weak smile at Ryoma, "You'll come with me, right? I need to see if there's blood there, too."

"Of course," Ryoma agreed, then started to lead the way back up the stairs himself. Kaede followed him, but he paused at the top of the stairs and squinted around, "Hey, could you check something out first, Akamatsu? Are there any faint bloodstains in this area? If the box was dripping that much down there, it has to have been leaking for a while. Unless Saihara somehow ended up inside the box down here first, that is..."

"Right," Kaede agreed, then began scanning the ground for any traces of blood. There weren't any on the stairs, or the path up here. This was just getting more confusing. The only blood that seemed to be in the area at all was what was leaking out of the bottom of that box, what was inside, and what was on the hilt of that sword, "Ah... Smart thinking, but how would that have worked out? I can't think of any way that Saihara would have been forced into the box anywhere but in Ouma's lab."

"You're the detective, you'll have to figure that out," Ryoma said, "Maybe the trial will help you clear your head and work out how this could have happened, though. I'm sure you'll find a proper rebuttal to any false theories that anybody may offer up."

"I will," Kaede said, clenching her fists, "I will find justice for Saihara. I'll find the Blackened."

"Even if it's somebody you trust?" Ryoma asked.

"Yes," Kaede said, though her voice got weak with the next statement, "Even if, somehow, it's Tsumugi. I won't let my judgment be clouded."

"That's good to hear," Ryoma said, "That's something you might need to-"

He couldn't finish his statement, because a distant but audible sound cut him off.

Angie screamed.


	92. Deadly Life: Day Eight (Mysterious Injury)

Kaede and Ryoma ran toward the dorms where Angie had screamed. Kaede was the first one through the door, and she saw Angie standing in front of the door for Kokichi's room. She wasted no time reaching her side, expecting the worst. The first thing Kaede saw was blood, but the second thing she realized was that the source of that blood was definitely alive, sitting up on his bed.

"...God, Yonaga," Kokichi muttered, having taken a long time to answer, "It's not like I'm dead or anything," His eyes were squeezed shut, and there was blood dripping down the side of his face and along his arm.

"What happened to you!?" Kaede questioned, pushing past Angie to run into the room, then she glanced back to Angie, "And why was there such a big gap between when you came here and when you screamed?"

"Ouma wouldn't let me in," Angie said, "And the dorms only just now opened for investigation, when I opened the door and totally thought I discovered another corpse!"

"It's nothing," Kokichi said, bringing his other hand up to cover the gash on his arm, "It's not important. I don't know. I have no idea... I don't know anything. I'll just get some bandages from the infirmary. It's not important. Who died...?"

Kaede didn't say anything.  
Angie didn't either.

Saying nothing was more telling than saying something, though, and Kokichi froze. Kaede watched as the realization passed over his face, or the half of it which was visible. He just sat there, staring straight ahead as he tried to breathe, just breathe, that was all that it seemed he was able to do. Kaede had suspected him after what Ryoma said, but she wasn't so sure anymore if she could do that-

No, she couldn't. She couldn't just dismiss Kokichi because he seemed distraught. She'd just finished promising Ryoma that she'd be objective and suspect anyone with evidence against them, and despite Kokichi's mysterious injuries, he was still the only person with any evidence against him. She wouldn't say that, though, "Yonaga. Take Ouma to the infirmary and get him bandaged up, okay? Maybe once he's in less pain he can remember how this happened..."

"Yeah," Angie said, stepping into the room and grabbing Kokichi by his good arm, propping him up, "I think I have an idea, but I'll wait till the trial..."

"Yeah, okay," Kaede said, moving to help before she realized that even in his shock, Kokichi was easily going with Angie on his own recognizance. It was then that Kaede noted the less obvious things; Besides the new gash, both his arms were pretty badly scarred, but there were also some recent bruises there. Kaede held a hand out toward them, "Wait, Ouma. Do you want to change out of the pajamas first?"

Kokichi turned and looked right at her, his one open eye glassy and blank, "No. I don't care right now."

With that, he and Angie left the room, and Kaede just watched the doorway for who knows how long Eventually, she left, meeting Ryoma back in the lobby. She locked eyes with him, but said nothing. He stayed silent as well, just giving her a solemn nod before he turned and started to lead the way out of the room, and toward Kokichi's lab.

Kaede was loathe to investigate there, but she knew what she had to do. It didn't matter how she felt, because everyone needed her to find the truth. What happened to Kokichi, she knew, could even be defensive wounds from attacking Shuichi. Alarm bells played in her mind over having that idea at all, but she had to look at all the possibilities.

Upon arriving to Kokichi's lab, she immediately noticed there was something strange. She remembered seeing the state of the room when Kaito had been killed there, and certain items had been returned to it following the trial. It should have been more cluttered than before, and in a way, it was; But there was one corridor that went from the door all the way to the far end of the lab, of cleared space.

Kaede stepped forward and walked down that corridor. It wasn't a very wide space, but she didn't have to sidestep or squeeze at all to get through. All she found at the far end, though, was a wall. A blank wall. Nothing on it. Nothing strange about it at all. Kaede had to wonder why there would be a path down to here; Maybe it was to get at a certain item? She turned back around and investigated the things which lined the corridor, but it didn't seem organized in any specific way, and there wasn't even an obviously missing spot where the sword cabinet would have come from.

The most confusing aspect to Kaede was still the time of death, though. At that time, the lab shouldn't have been able to be accessed, because the gym was closed during nighttime. That was the only way in, wasn't it? Monokuma said so. Then again, she'd never decided to trust the thing.

There wasn't any blood in this room, either, Kaede noticed. It was almost like the murder actually had happened somewhere else, but if that was true, why did Shuichi have that note telling him to come here? None of the clues were clicking together yet, but then again, was that really different from the past cases. Kaede didn't really figure out anything until she had false ideas and all the information laid out in front of her.

"This doesn't seem like a crime scene," Ryoma said.

"It really doesn't," Kaede agreed, then paused and crouched down, examining the floor, "Wait, there's something... Here. The floor's scuffed up weird. All this stuff has wheels on it now, and the scuff marks don't look... Like objects. Kind of looks like the heels of a shoe. Like somebody was dragged."

"So it's a crime scene after all," Ryoma said, "Then why is there no blood? The Monopad said the cause of death was impalement. And you saw how much blood was in the box."

"Yeah, Hoshi, that's what I need to figure out," Kaede growled under her breath, then stood up and ran a hand back through her hair, "Next is... Next is. I don't know. I don't know where else to investigate."

"Hey," Ryoma said, "Why not see if you can find those scuff marks anywhere else, like in the gym, or the hallways?"

"...I don't know if they'd show up there, but I'll give it a shot," Kaede said, "Thanks, Hoshi. I couldn't do this without you here to make sure I don't mess it up."

"Yes you could," Ryoma said, "You'd do it for Saihara. I'm just keeping you on track."


	93. Deadly Life: Day Eight (Manhole Cover)

Kaede left Kokichi's lab. As soon as she left it, she looked down at the floor. Nothing obvious; Gymnasium floors were especially vulnerable to wear and tear if one wore the wrong type of shoes, and there was already too much damage done to this one for Kaede to tell the difference. Likewise, with the hallway. It was a sturdier floor, but there were simply too many marks already. She couldn't figure that out at all.

She looked up from the floor, only to find herself face-to-face with Miu, who addressed her straight away, "Akamatsu. What are you looking for now? Let me assist you in any way that I can."

"Scuffs on the floor," Kaede answered, "In Ouma's lab, there were marks as if somebody had been dragged."

"Huh..." Miu mumbled, looking away, "That's suspect. And the marks came in this direction?"

"I couldn't tell the direction," Kaede said, "But this is the only way that anyone could have been dragged, right?"

"I don't know," Miu said, "You could always check the boiler room, couldn't you?"

"That doesn't make sense, though. Monokuma already said there was no way to get to the boiler room from that lab, even though they're adjacent," Kaede said.

Miu shrugged, "Well, I don't know, but... Don't you think it's possible that changed? Also, we did learn that Ouma was able to get inside Shinguji's lab despite it being boarded up from the inside. Maybe... I mean, it was his lab. It makes sense there would be an escape from it, if you really think about it?"

"I mean... I guess that's possible," Kaede mumbled, then stepped past Miu, "I'll investigate that room, then. Thank you, Iruma," She kept walking. Maybe she was being curt, but she didn't like the way the evidence was stacking up. If what Miu said was correct... But Kaede was hung up on one thing. This wasn't like last time, when it was possible that there wasn't actually a motive. There had to be a reason, and what reason could anyone have to kill Shuichi?

Kaede moved quickly, around the back of the school to the boiler room. She hadn't actually been here before; She never had a reason to, nobody really did. There wasn't anything especially interesting about it. It wasn't well-lit, and it was kind of overgrown. She stepped inside and began her investigation. She found a manhole cover, which seemed like a kind of weird thing to have in a place like this. Was it for the sake of pipe maintenance, maybe? Well, that wasn't relevant at the moment.

Or, was it? She decided she would check it out after she finished inspecting up here. She got down on the floor again, then pulled out her Monopad to use its screen for a minimal amount of light, so that she could see if there were marks. There were indeed a few scuff marks, she determined. Then, she turned back to the manhole cover, only to grunt in frustration when she realized it was much too heavy for her.

"Let me try," Ryoma offered, but he didn't have any luck with it either. They tried pulling on it at the same time, and it budged a bit, but not enough to get at whatever was underneath it. With serendipitous timing, however, Tenko walked in.

"Hey, Iruma told me you guys were investigating in here," Tenko said, a fierce glare on her face, "Because apparently, even though Ouma was also attacked, you're still suspecting him. Anyway, I have some information for Akamatsu."

"Hey, before you give me that information," Kaede said, looking up at Tenko, "Could you help us lift this thing? You're pretty strong."

"Huh? Yeah, okay," Tenko said, then approached and lifted the cover. She couldn't lift the thing very high, but she could get it enough to move it to the ground, off to the side, revealing a hole with a ladder down. She then looked to Kaede again, "Anyway, I met up with Yonaga when she was bringing Ouma to the infirmary. When I was there, I discovered something. A whole bunch of the labels looked wrong to me, like, two bottles with the same label had different looking pills."

"That's weird," Kaede agreed, "Anything specific?"

"No, it seemed like the way they were mixed up was totally random," Tenko said, then glanced down at the ladder, "...What's down here, huh?"

"I don't know. We should check it out," Kaede said, staring down into the hole.

"Hey," Ryoma said, "There's something else first. Look at this manhole cover."

Kaede turned to see what he was pointing at; there was a faint bloodstain, right on the side of the cover. Tenko turned back and grabbed the cover again, grunting at the strain as she flipped the cover over. On the other side, the stain was much more pronounced. Kaede leaned in close to it, "Does that mean... This room was where Saihara got killed?"

"...Yeah, maybe," Tenko noted, moving away from the manhole cover again, "That's kind of suspicious, isn't it? Killed here, put in one of Ouma's tricks, and moved way out in the open? It's like Shinguji all over again, whoever did this wanted everyone to see it... Don't you think, it could be a framing?"

"That's possible," Ryoma said, "But don't get your hopes up."

"I'll get my hopes up if I want to!" Tenko snapped, "It's not like I need to be objective about this. I choose to believe in Ouma. And if my mind needs to be changed, then you won't do it, Hoshi. The trial will."

"...Good point, Chabashira. Sorry about that," Ryoma muttered, then nodded his head toward the hole in the floor, "Anyway, that's all I wanted to figure out. You can investigate down there if you want. Uh... I'm actually not sure I can do that ladder, so I'll head out. Chabashira, an anthropologist's gotta have an eagle eye, right? You and Akamatsu, keep an eye on each other. Make sure neither of you miss anything or do anything sketchy."

With that, Ryoma stood and wandered out of the boiler room. Kaede and Tenko started down the ladder to investigate their new discovery.


	94. Deadly Life: Day Eight (Underground)

Kaede climbed down the ladder for what seemed like an eternity until she felt solid ground beneath her feet. It was just as dim down here as it had been in the boiler room, if not more, with just one light against the far wall. She stepped carefully in that direction, in case there was anything she could trip over. There was a tunnel there.

When Kaede got closer, she could see that there was a cardboard sign by the side of the tunnel, with "EXIT" written on it in what seemed to be clumsy black marker. Kaede squinted at it, then turned to watch as Tenko stepped into the light with her, "Hey, Chabashira. How'd none of us know about this?"

Tenko shrugged, "I don't think I ever even went in the boiler room before today. Plus, who'd want to exit? But maybe it just leads to somewhere else in the school..." Tenko stepped forward, into the tunnel, only to jump backwards when something fell from the ceiling in front of her. Moments later, there was a tiny explosion. She blinked a few times in shock, then turned back to Kaede, "I don't think if I'd found this, I would've told anyone. It seems dangerous!"

"Jeeze... What's something like this even doing here?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow, "Ah... I don't think this would actually be relevant to the case. I'm kind of scared to try investigating it... It kind of seems like nobody's been down here, anyway. We stirred up a lot of dust. It was probably just the boiler room that matters..."

"Yeah," Tenko said, nodding in agreement, "I want to get out of here... I don't like this environment at all. Usually, finding secrets in architecture is cool, but this one just feels terrible... I don't know why exactly..."

"Hey, Chabashira?" Kaede asked, realizing something, "How strong would someone have to be to flip that manhole cover over, anyway?"

"Hm, are you trying to narrow down the suspects?" Tenko asked, and Kaede nodded. She shook her head, "Anyone could do that if they had something for leverage. Like a long stick. Or, a sword, actually. Getting the cover off the hole is difficult, but if it was already off, just use a lever to turn it over, then kick it into place. Anyone could do it."

"Oh... So, the fact that the cover's really heavy doesn't actually help at all," Kaede noted, then stepped back into the darkness to make her way towards the ladder. Tenko was right behind her. Kaede's hand hit a rung of the ladder, and she froze, looking up, "There's no light..."

"...There isn't," Tenko agreed as she looked up, panic creeping into her voice, "Did somebody put the cover back on? Why would they do that? What's... What's going on?" She paced back into the light, clutching at her head, "First Saihara, now... Now this, fuck! Akamatsu, if we're still down here when the trial's supposed to start, then we'll be killed for breaking the rules!"

"Chabashira," Kaede followed her over there, "It's, it's okay. We'll get out of here. I'm sure it was just a mistake, Hoshi knows we're down here, he'll get Gokuhara to let us up if we don't show up in time-"

"Hoshi, that bastard!" Tenko shouted at the top of her lungs, "He killed Saihara, and he's trying to frame Ouma, and he knows we'd figure it out so he's shutting us up!"

"I'm sure that's not what's going on..." Kaede whispered, "I can't die here. I can't... I promised Tsumugi that I wouldn't leave her behind. That I'd never leave her behind."

"Then you shouldn't have trusted that little idiot!" Tenko's volume didn't drop at all, then there was the sound of more yelling. She froze; it wasn't an echo. She couldn't make out what was being said, or even the faintest idea of who it could be, but there was _somebody_ yelling above them.

Tenko ran back to the ladder and just started climbing, yelling for help as she went in the hopes that she'd be heard. Kaede just stayed where she was, standing in place. She wrapped her arms around herself. It wasn't cold down here, it was right next to hot water pipes... But she felt like she was frozen right down to her bones in that moment. Everything was falling to pieces lately; The only thing which had gone right for her was Tsumugi. And now...

"Euch..." Tenko's voice came from the ladder as she halted in her yelling for help, "Something wet just landed on my forehead..." She kept climbing, though, banging on the manhole from underneath. She couldn't move it, she already knew that. From on the ladder, she could only use one arm at full-extension, which was useless, "Hey! Come on! Somebody, we're down here, come and let us ou-" She gagged, then sputtered.

With a scoff, Tenko climbed back down, "Some of it got in my mouth... God, what is it? I'm coming back into the light so we can figure it out, okay, Akamatsu?"

"Yeah, okay..." Kaede mumbled, looking in Tenko's direction. As soon as Tenko came into even a little bit of light, Kaede was shocked. Her breath caught in her throat.

Tenko took two more steps forward, then stopped and lifted her hand where she'd wiped her forehead with it, and she too froze, though unlike Kaede she didn't cease all movement. In her stillness, she trembled, staring at her own hand. It was blood. Not her own blood, and not the dried blood that had been on the manhole cover before. This was fresh, and it had dripped down from above the manhole cover.

Kaede managed to pull herself together just enough to state the obvious, "Is... Is somebody else... dead?"

"That or seriously injured, like Ouma was," Tenko muttered, then clenched her bloodied hand into a fist and lurched forward, driving a punch through the cardboard sign as she screamed out in frustration, then lowered her volume again to speak, "This place was never meant to improve our talents. That's a farce. It was meant to do this to us. It was meant to make us fall apart, it was meant to ruin us and make us hurt each other... No..." Tenko choked out, "We were already ruined."

"Chabashira..." Kaede reached toward her, then dropped her hand.

Tenko turned back to face her, cheeks tearstained and eyes harsh, "This is it, Akamatsu. It's the end. We're all going to die here."

"I'm sure that's not t-"

"Hey everybody! I can't believe I get to make this announcement!" Monokuma's voice sounded out, and a monitor in the corner flickered to life, casting light on the bottom of the ladder which now had an excessive amount of blood below it, "Another body has just been discovered! Everyone, please report to the boiler room~!"


	95. Deadly Life: Day Eight (Trapped)

Kaede wasn't surprised by that announcement. She couldn't have been surprised, after seeing the blood that dripped down onto Tenko. Still, she couldn't imagine who else had been killed. She didn't have any idea what could have happened; If someone wanted Shuichi dead, who else would they want dead? There was Kokichi, but she couldn't imagine he'd have come into this room. Likely, he was still in the infirmary.

Kaede actually had no idea what to expect. She just backed up against a wall, and stared down at the ground. She realized, there was the possibility that she could find out who it was even while she was trapped down here. She pulled out her Monopad, only to find an error message flashed on her screen, "Out of range; Monofile Download Failed."

She hit the button to try again, but she doubted that it would complete the download if it hadn't been able to the first time. Her signal wasn't about to get any better, and even with the good constitution it took to be a detective, her stomach did flips at the idea of climbing that ladder with blood still dripping down from above. With the body on top of the manhole cover, would anyone even think to check for them? If Ryoma was the one who trapped them down here, he was the only one who'd even know they could be here. Maybe Tenko was right.

Kaede slid down the wall till she was sitting on the floor, hugging her knees as she whispered, "I don't want to die, Chabashira."

Tenko walked over to her, more calm than she'd been a moment before as she crouched down in front of Kaede, locking eyes with her, "I don't either. And that's weird. Why am I afraid of something that I used to want?"

"I don't know," Kaede said, weak as she shook her head, "I'm scared too. I'm really scared. I thought that we were all friends, but now... We're trapped, and we're going to die, and two of our friends are dead too. Now would be the perfect time, not to fear death. But here I am. Afraid."

"I want to believe," Tenko said, "That it's all one person. The same person killed Saihara, and trapped us down here, and killed whoever else is dead, and it's just one person who's responsible. But for all we know, that could be all different people, too..."

"You're right," Kaede said, "But it doesn't matter what theories you and I have, anymore. Whoever committed this murder really wants to get away with it."

"When do you think Monokuma will tell them that we're dead?" Tenko asked, "Will it be when the trial starts and it kills us, or will it be after the trial... If anyone survives? Or, do you think..." Tenko clenched her hands again, "It won't even tell them? We'll just be gone. We'll have disappeared, and maybe then they'll find us and they'll have to have another trial..."

"Chabashira," Kaede said, "Stop."

"Huh?' Tenko questioned, furrowing her brow.

"Stop with the worst case scenarios. That's not helping anything," Kaede said, "I don't know what's going to happen, or what has happened. But... Why bother thinking about that stuff, huh? It's not like there's anything we can do about any of this, we can't change anything. All we can do is hope for the best."

"Hope..." Tenko trailed off, staring at a far wall, "Akamatsu, does that really exist? Have you ever actually felt it?"

"Yeah, I have-" Kaede started.

"No," Tenko cut her off, "I mean, out in the real world. Before we came here. I've felt hope here, but I can't quite remember... Any feeling by that name, in the past. So what if it's just made up, for us to have here? To be crushed so we can feel even more despair?"

"I don't want to think that," Kaede said, "I'm sure that hope is real, even if I never felt it outside... I think it's just because, outside, there was too much despair. I felt happiness before, but there was never a reason for hope. Somehow, I feel like... I always thought that there was nothing waiting for me in the world."

"Me too," Tenko said, sitting down across from Kaede now, "That's weird, isn't it? I always knew I was smart and talented, it wasn't even a surprise when I got picked by the Ultimate Initiative... So why would Ultimates feel like there was no future for us? I feel like, there's more missing from our memories. Maybe we're missing stuff that Monokuma has no intention of ever giving back. Somehow, there's something... Off."

"Maybe," Kaede said, looking to the tunnel with the exit sign beside it, "There's answers somewhere in there?"

"Could be," Tenko said, standing back up, "You know, maybe I could do it. Maybe I could get through there... Can't be more difficult than exploring the more untouched ruins of paranoid or bloodthirsty societies. Booby traps aren't just in movies."

"It's too dangerous, Chabashira," Kaede said, "There's a chance we could get rescued from down here. Don't squander that, getting yourself killed in that tunnel."

"I don't think the stuff in there's deadly," Tenko said, "Why would Monokuma set up a death trap like this when it wants us to participate in a Killing Game? They're probably just stun bombs or something. Enough to stop you, but not kill you..."

"Why would you take that chance?" Kaede asked.

"I don't know," Tenko said, "Curiosity?"

"I guess that's just the way you are," Kaede couldn't help but chuckle a bit, despite their situation, though she buried her face in her knees moments later, "Is the person doing this somebody who wants to get away with it to go outside? Or get away with it to kill everyone? That could be it. That's another possible motive."

"I can't imagine anyone would want to do that..." Tenko muttered.

"Me neither," Kaede said, "But someone could know something we don't. I can't bring myself to hate whoever's killing us, Chabashira. Because it doesn't make sense unless they have a good reason. I can understand that. I'd kill if I had a good reason. I know you wouldn't, Chabashira, but I can't deny it. I would, if I needed to."

"I can't hate them either," Tenko said, "I just wish I could know the reason, before I had to die for it."


	96. Deadly Life: Day Eight (Discovery)

Kaede and Tenko fell into silence, just sitting where they were trapped beneath the boiler room for quite some time. Kaede had no idea how long it was, of course, but she was pretty sure that it wasn't short. She counted her breaths, and there were far too many for it to be a short period of time. Kaede looked up when, eventually, the ladder seemed to be lit up again, just a little. She got Tenko's attention, pointing toward it.

"Is that..." Tenko trailed off, getting to her feet, and that was when she heard the shouting. Gonta's voice.

"Akamatsu! Chabashira! Are you in hole?" He called out, and upon hearing that, Tenko ran to the ladder and started to climb up.

"Gokuhara! Yes, we're here!" She climbed as quickly as she could, and Kaede followed at a similar pace. Once she got close enough, Tenko could see Gonta's face looking in, and he moved out of the way so she could climb out. Kaede did as well while Tenko addressed him, "Gokuhara, you saved us! How did you find us? Did Hoshi tell you we were here?"

"No," Gonta said, "Hoshi went to fetch Ouma from infirmary. Gonta just... Have feeling deep in bones, that Chabashira in trouble! And thought, before, no cover on hole... Amami yell not to move body, but Gonta had to!"

"And it's good that you did," Rantaro said, stepping forward to help Kaede up, "I thought disturbing the body was a bad idea because it would hurt the evidence, but with you two trapped down there... I guess it was necessary."

"Who is it?" Kaede asked, looking around, and she spotted her, moved gently away from the hole which led to the room beneath the boiler.

Kirumi Tojo, with a sword straight through her chest.

Kaede just stared at her body for a while, shocked. She was trying to process this. She had no idea how long she looked, but it was almost certainly too long to just spend giving a blank stare to a dead body. Kirumi? Why her? Kaede knew that she wasn't especially well-liked among Kokichi's group, but to Kaede, she had been important. Kirumi was the one who supported Kiibo while Kiibo supported everybody else.

Kirumi was quietly working to ground them all to reality, help them through their problems while never even sharing a bit of the burden of her own.

The sword which killed her was just like the swords which had killed Shuichi. Kaede approached the body, examining her more properly than the previous glassy stare. It looked like, at least, it had been a quick death. She pulled her Monopad back out, checking the file. Time of death, 1051. Cause of death, impaled by a sword. Her eyes were wide open, but it seemed her expression when she was killed wasn't one of shock, but of anger. Of condemnation.

Kaede turned back to look at everybody gathered here. Everyone had shown up but Kokichi and Ryoma; She assumed that Kokichi wasn't up to coming all the way out here just to see a body, if Ryoma could tell him who else had died. Everyone seemed shocked and upset, but Kiibo was by far the most distraught, standing in the far corner. He was staring at the wall.

Kaede approached him, "Idabashi...?"

"Akamatsu," Kiibo said, quiet as he leaned against the wall with one arm, the other wrapped around himself, "How did this happen? How could I let this happen? I told everyone that they could count on me, but now..."

"Don't blame yourself, Idabashi," Kaede said, reaching a hand out to rub his back.

"Tojo trusted me," Kiibo hissed out, through clenched teeth, shaking his head, "She told me that I was the first person she'd trusted in a long time, and I couldn't save her. I couldn't protect her, or Ouma, and I almost couldn't protect you or Chabashira _either_. What sort of a leader am I...?"

"You're the best one in the world," Kaede said, "It's just a show of how messed up this place is, that even you couldn't stop this from happening."

"How can you say that? Akamatsu, this is horrible. Something like this shouldn't happen anywhere, at all. Especially not with so many people trying to prevent exactly this. And why... Why did it have to be two people?" Kiibo questioned.

"It's because this is a Killing Game," Kaede said, "It doesn't matter what we do. Something's always going to happen. There is one thing, though..." She took a deep breath, "What happens if Saihara and Tojo weren't killed by the same person?"

"Upupu!" Monokuma appeared, "That's right, I didn't decide what double jeopardy rules this Killing Game would have... How about this?" It turned and pointed to this room's monitor, which lit up with the image of a wheel. It had several options on it.

'Both blackened are executed', 'Only second is executed', 'Only first is executed', a whole assortment of situations. Kaede knew there were other killing games. Ryoma cited being in two. There had to have been more. Were double murders so common that all of these options were used before, so common that a wheel was necessary?

It spun, and spun, and Monokuma announced where it landed, "Oh, that's a great one for you guys! The last couple murders have been special circumstances, so you didn't get the chance to vote for the culprit... But, here's how this trial will work. If there are two different blackened, whichever one receives the most votes will be executed. If the most votes go to neither of them, then it will of course be a wrong answer. Both blackened will walk free, and everyone else will be executed."

"I see..." Kaede frowned, "So... It's like the first case, isn't it? If there are two blackened, then we'll be forced to pick between the lives of two different people again."

"I knew there was no way we could get through that coin-flip loophole forever," Kiibo sighed, "Though, then again, both lives which were at stake then are gone now. Akamatsu, it's already been quite a while since we found this body. I'm not sure if you'd know that, with your condition... I can only assume the trial will be beginning soon. I haven't seen Ouma since we found Tojo in this state, Hoshi never brought him back here or even returned on his own. I believe it may be best for the remainder of your investigation, to make sure those two will make it to the trial. I'd hate to lose anyone else to some inability to reach the courtroom, after all."

"Right..." Kaede said, her voice quiet, "Whoever trapped Chabashira and I could have tried the same with those two, right? If that happened, it would mean Hoshi wasn't the one responsible..."

"The idea that both these deaths and your trap could be the work of one person... What sort of monster do we have among us?" Kiibo wondered aloud.

"Ouma's wounds, too," Kaede reminded him.

"Of course," Kiibo turned his eyes back to the wall, "There's something very wrong here. Do you honestly believe anyone here would cause such far-reaching harm if they were in their right mind?"

"No, actually," Kaede shook her head, "I don't. Do you have a theory, Idabashi?"

"I might," He said, "I'll have to wait until we have all the evidence in front of us, however. I wouldn't want to color your investigation."


	97. Deadly Life: Day Eight (Idiot)

Kaede went searching for Kokichi and Ryoma; She didn't have to look long. Kiibo's fears regarding them turned out to be unfounded. They weren't trapped anywhere, just sitting in the infirmary when Kaede arrived. Ryoma was standing by the medicine containers with his Monopad, taking pictures of the mixed-up bottles. Kokichi sat on one of the cots, bandaged up. He'd put bandages on his uninjured arm too, covering up the scars, and he was staring at the ceiling, mouthing words to himself. Kaede approached.

"Hey, Akamatsu," Kokichi greeted her, then returned to what he was doing.

"What are you doing?" Kaede asked.

Kokichi stopped what he was doing, then explained, "I'm counting the ceiling tiles in English. It's a calming tactic, it's pretty common. It's helping me keep a level head about all of this... How's your investigation going?" It was a strained calm that he spoke with, but a calm nonetheless. He was doing his best to hold it together in spite of himself.

"Ah, I understand," Kaede said, then spoke loud enough that Ryoma could hear her too, "My investigation isn't going. I was stuck under the boiler room in an extra-deep basement for half an hour before the second death announcement. Gokuhara only figured out we were down there and let us out after another twenty minutes, apparently."

"Wait," Ryoma turned, wide-eyed, "You were still down there when Tojo was killed? What could have taken you so long?"

"The manhole cover was replaced. Chabashira says we were only down there for five minutes before she tried going back up and discovered we were trapped, so I kind of worry that it was deliberate. And putting the body on top of the cover, so that nobody would want to open it again..." She shuddered at the thought, "Whoever did all this is really sick."

"God. If you hadn't been set free, then you would have been killed for not showing up to the trial... Right?" Ryoma asked, stepping away and waving his Monopad at her, "By the way, I documented the mislabeled medicines that Chabashira mentioned. So that's one less thing to worry about. I'm sure that the others collected plenty of evidence on their own, and you can gather alibis during the trial."

"Thanks, Hoshi," Kaede said, nodding, "Yeah. I didn't think of it at the time, but Chabashira did. She was convinced you were the one who trapped us."

"Well," Ryoma said, looking her straight in the eyes, "I can tell you that I wouldn't do that, but you need to stay open to suspecting me anyhow. I did have the opportunity, after all. I'm sure you'll discover the true culprit, though, and that will exonerate me."

"I will," Kaede confirmed, offering him a smile, then turned to Kokichi again, "Ouma, how are you holding up...?"

"Trying," Kokichi answered.

"I should warn you," Kaede said, "You'll be a pretty big suspect in this trial. Some people will think you had motive for both murders... And opportunity. Are you prepared to defend yourself?"

"I am," Kokichi said, "For this trial, I am. I don't know about the future, if I'm a suspect in another trial, maybe I won't be able to. I can't just let people think I killed Shuichi, though."

"Good," Kaede said, "Don't worry. If you become a suspect again, I'll defend you then. I just don't know enough about this case, there's so many mysterious factors."

"Yeah," Ryoma confirmed, "Akamatsu will. Well, unless she's actually the culprit in this case," He teased as he wandered out of the infirmary.

"Thanks, Hoshi," Kaede rolled her eyes, then sat down next to Kokichi, "Hey. Yonaga was saying something, I heard her. You weren't there cause it was during a meal, but she was saying that it's possible none of this is even real. I don't know what to think of that, but... That means that Saihara could still be alive, someplace. That maybe, we can see him again."

"Don't get my hopes up, Akamatsu," Kokichi muttered, staring down at his own hands, "Everything good I ever had, I lost. Shuichi's gone too, I won't just be in denial and think there's some way that I'm going to see him again. I was dumb to even think that I could have something so beautiful. That's how my life has always been, after all. And it's how it'll always be... But Shuichi wouldn't want me to just give up, would he? So I'll stay alive, even if every second of it hurts. I'll at least see if the outside world wants to finally show me any kindness before I give up."

"That's the best I could hope you'd say," Kaede said.

"But, you know..." Kokichi whispered, "If it is two different blackened, and it's Tojo's killer who's voted to be executed? All bets are off. I'll kill Shuichi's killer myself, and you know it. Right, Akamatsu?"

"I know," Kaede said, kicking her feet out in front of herself, "But only if I didn't kill them first."

"Ha. No, you've got Shirogane," Kokichi said, "Leave it to me, right?"

"That's true," Kaede said, staring at the far wall with her arms wrapped around herself, "I promised I wouldn't leave her behind. I'm just... I have so many feelings. I'm scared to die because of that promise. I want to spend as much time as possible with her. But Saihara was a good friend to both of us. If I were avenging him, wouldn't she understand? I'm so angry, that somebody would dare to do this..."

"Do you think that you're in love, Akamatsu?" Kokichi asked, his voice devoid of emotion.

"I don't know," Kaede said, "In love is different than this, I think. It's fast, because we're in this situation, there's adrenaline... And this need to feel close, and Tsumugi can give me that, and I can give her that. It's a type of love. It could become in love, but it's not there yet."

"Good," Kokichi said, still so blank, so empty, "Only an idiot would fall in love in a place like this."


	98. Third Trial: Begin

"Hey you bastards!" Monokuma's voice filled the air again, "Investigation time is officially over, it's time for the trial! This has been a super duper exciting morning, but it's finally time to reassemble the happenings! Will you find the blackened? Or will this case stump you and spell your doom? Let's find out in the Shrine of Judgment!"

Kaede sighed and stood up, then held out a hand for Kokichi. He took it with his uninjured arm and let himself be led outside. Kaede paused just outside the warehouse, and turned to him, "Saihara's body..."

"You don't have to cover my eye or anything," Kokichi said, "I know it's right in the way of where we need to go. I should see it, at least once. I need the closure. Whatever closure there is... It'll prove he really is gone. It'll keep the back of my mind from coming up with anything stupid, like Yonaga's theory that none of this is real."

"I don't know if it's stupid," Kaede said, starting to walk through the school, "More like naively hopeful. There is a difference there. But, I get it. Sometimes you need something to remind you that it's real. I've felt that way before too."

"Yeah," Kokichi agreed, and a silence fell between them. Neither of them said anything, as Kaede led him outside, past the body, and to the Shrine of Judgment. They were the last ones to arrive, and as soon as they stepped inside, the path to the courtroom elevator revealed itself. Kaede let go of Kokichi, and stood next to Tsumugi in the elevator.

Kaede was disgusted, upon arrival in the courtroom, to see that there were only ten empty podiums left. The number of signs for the dead which stood where their owners once were... she found herself once more wondering how, how this could happen. Tsumugi draped her arms over Kaede's shoulders as they went to their podiums, and turned their eyes to where Monokuma sat.

"Welcome everyone, to the trial to uncover the killer or killers of Shuichi Saihara and Kirumi Tojo! The Annual Killing Game's third case is another Double Jeopardy!" Monokuma exclaimed, laughing through its words, "Funny how that keeps happening. One of you knows that already, though. If you knew who, would you be mad that there was no warning? Anyway, let the trial begin! Take it away, Kayayday!"

"Don't call me that," Kaede snapped at it, then addressed everybody, "This case... There are two victims. Shuichi Saihara and Kirumi Tojo. Both have the same cause of death, listed as impalement. The murder weapon is swords. Saihara was killed at 0145 and discovered in the courtyard. Tojo was killed at 1051 and discovered in the boiler room. Those are the basic facts."

"Also worth mentioning," Tenko spoke up, "Akamatsu and I were trapped in the double-deep basement underneath the boiler room, an act which seemed to be intentional. Had we not been rescued from there, Monokuma would have killed us for 'skipping' the trial. I think it's best we assume for now that whoever did that was also responsible for at least one death and pursue investigation of the attempted murder as well."

"Speaking of attempted murder, maybe," Angie spoke up, "Ouma woke up with a serious injury on his right side. We should try and figure out how that happened too! My guess is that it's all connected."

"I just can't believe this happened..." Kiibo muttered, gripping the podium in front of himself, "Ah, we need to figure out who would do something like this. That's five murders or attempted murders, potentially, isn't it? I can't believe anyone here would do that..."

"We just need to work this out one piece at a time," Kaede said, "Though, I'm not sure where to begin. There's so many factors at play..."

"How about the murder weapon?" Rantaro offered, "Unlike the last cases, we're very certain about the cause of death and the weapon used. We should figure out what's going on with those weapons."

"Good idea, Amami," Kaede said, pressing her hands together, "The weapons were swords. The standard swords which came with the magic trick that Saihara's body was found inside; I'm a bit surprised those were real swords, but that's certainly the origin. Every sword was exactly the same. One of the swords in the box with Saihara had blood on the hilt, implying that it was used before being driven through the box. The sword used to kill Tojo had two layers of blood; Fresh, and dried. So we can assume that sword was taken from the box and reused."

"So if the swords were from Ouma's lab, then anybody could have had access to them," Tsumugi said, "It doesn't need to be someone who can get into Shinguji's lab, or someone who could get inside Ouma's room."

"Right," Kaede said, "As it stands, that's the weapons... And we don't have a primary suspect. I'll need everybody to give me their alibis for both times of death, then."

"Er," Gonta spoke up, "During Saihara death... Everyone asleep. No good alibi."

"Good point, Gokuhara," Kaede said, "We can't even vouch for each other if we slept in the same room, because as far as I can tell, we all slept more soundly than usual. I don't think Tsumugi moving would have woken me up, for example. Then there's Chabashira and Yonaga, who slept in different parts of the same room. So I guess it's better if for now, we just focus on what our alibis were for the second murder."

"Hey, wait a minute," Miu said, "Don't just move on like that. There could still be something up with the first one. After all... It was true that Ouma can't sleep without another human, right? So how did he wake up injured the morning that Saihara was found dead?"

"Unless that was the lie," Kiibo said, "And both of the other statements are true. Ouma never even tried to vouch for himself, after all."

"I really can't fall asleep without anybody with me," Kokichi protested, "I'll tell you that much. Shuichi never came back to my room last night, and I don't remember falling asleep either. I don't know how I ended up waking up. Without Shuichi, it should have been a sleepless night."

"You could be lying to us, it wouldn't be the first time you did," Ryoma said, "Not to mention, there are other factors which point towards you as the possible culprit, Ouma. The murder weapons did come from your lab, and you had ample opportunity to kill Saihara. There was that note that Akamatsu found. Also, you refuse to tell us how you got your injuries, so it's easy enough for us to assume that you got them from Saihara while trying to kill him. And regardless of which statements about you are true, you could have motive to kill Saihara from any of the combinations."


	99. Third Trial: Note

"I didn't kill Shuichi," Kokichi said, staring Ryoma down with his one unbandaged eye, "I honestly don't remember how I got these injuries. And I don't know what note you're talking about."

"Of course you know what note I'm talking about," Ryoma said, glaring back, "You're the one who left it."

"Actually, Hoshi," Kaede spoke up, "I'm not so sure that this note was actually from Ouma. Anyone could have made it seem like it was from him, by putting it on his door or even planting it on Saihara's body. There's just something not quite right about it."

"Why don't you share the note with the court, Akamatsu?" Tenko offered, "Then we can tell you what we think of it! If we put our brains together, we'll find the truth. That's why the culprit wanted the two of us out of the picture."

"Right," Kaede said, then pulled the note from her pocket and read it aloud again, "Hey Saihara. I don't feel like eating dinner right now, but meet me in my lab just before nighttime, okay? -Ouma."

 

"Right before nighttime?" Kiibo asked, "But that would trap Saihara inside the lab..."

"Which doesn't make sense, actually," Kaede said, "Saihara was killed in the boiler room, based on the blood that was on the manhole cover. He was killed at 0145, too, which is past nighttime. So it seems like Saihara realized something was wrong with this note, and never went to the lab at all... Except, there's scuff marks there like a person was dragged... There's some contradictions going on here."

"That is weird. So we should just focus on the note," Rantaro said, "Akamatsu, you said that something seems weird about it but you don't know what?"

"That's right," Kaede said, "Something just seems to me like this was written by somebody other than Ouma."

"If it was written by him, though, it's some pretty damning evidence," Ryoma said.

"That might be exactly why somebody else wrote it," Tenko said, "I still think this was a frame job."

"Well," Kokichi said, the note having been passed around to him as everyone looked it over, "Whoever wrote this has my handwriting down pretty good, but there's no way that I would have written this," He turned to look at Kaede, "You know why, right, Akamatsu? Come on, I know you know it, even if you haven't realized it. I couldn't have written this note to Shuichi."

"That's right!" Kaede exclaimed at the prompting, "That's what's off about the note... Saihara and Ouma? Those two used each other's first names. It was a recent development, but that definitely happened!"

"Wouldn't Ouma have gone back to last-name basis if something went wrong between them, though?" Rantaro asked, furrowing his brow, "Or... Maybe Saihara thought so, and he was worried that something was wrong, so he didn't stop to think that it wasn't actually Ouma. And that's how the killer was able to lure him to the room."

"If that's true," Kaede said, "Then that means the culprit didn't know that those two were on first name basis. However, it's hard to believe that anybody was so out of the loop that they hadn't realized..."

"Gonta not remember fact, even though know," Gonta spoke up, raising his hand, "Not strange for details to slip mind, Akamatsu. We are not all Detectives."

"Ah, good point, Gokuhara. I guess that doesn't narrow things down at all," Kaede said.

"Or, it points toward the author of that note being Ouma after all," Kiibo said, drumming his fingers against the podium, "We can't make a decision on that front just yet, and we're being too hung up on this one piece of evidence. There's much more to think about, and we haven't even begun to discuss Tojo's death yet..."

"You're right," Kaede said, "We need to get back on track. Alibis for Tojo's death. Chabashira and I were trapped under the boiler room. There's no way we could be falsifying that, either. Tojo's body was on top of the manhole cover when we were trapped, and there's logistically no way we could put it there then go to the deep basement. Plus, the only blood in that room was where she lay on top of the cover, the other blood that we can assume belonged to Saihara on the cover, and where she was moved to in full view of everyone in order to set Chabashira and me free."

"Hm," Angie spoke up, "I don't have one, I guess. I can vouch for Ouma, though. He definitely didn't leave the infirmary at any time with injuries like that."

"Say," Kaede started, "Why did Tojo's body get discovered anyway? Don't three people have to find it, for the announcement to sound?"

"Oh, that is weird," Miu said, "The announcement sounded as soon as I went into the boiler room and saw her there. It's supposed to be three people?"

"That's to prevent the announcement from sounding the moment of death, when the killer sees the body, or an accomplice," Ryoma said, "Perhaps Monokuma counted the fact that Chabashira and Akamatsu would have known somebody died above them, even if they didn't know who it was..."

"Yes, it's either that," Kaede said, "Or Iruma was the third person to see the body. It triggers on either three people at once, or three different people in sequence. Though, the killer's presence in the room upon death doesn't actually count for the sequence. It would have to be two other discoverers before Iruma. Or the killer re-entered the room twice before Iruma entered. Or she re-entered a total of three times, if she's the killer."

"How do you know it in such specific terms, Akamatsu?" Rantaro asked.

Kaede froze under his question. That was a very good question; She got carried away with herself and didn't realize that she was letting slip more information than she should actually know.

"Come on, Akamatsu," Ryoma said, "Answer the question. How do you know it? Was I wrong to trust you after all?"

"Kaede Akamatsu," Rantaro raised his voice, staring at her in disbelief, "Could you be... The Mastermind?"


	100. Third Trial: Derailment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 100~ Chapter 100. Ya boi Nhitori's been doing this daily since October, excluding a few double-postings and missed November days.
> 
> So on this chapter 100, my anonymous friend has some Saiharas for you!

  


"No... No way!" Tsumugi protested on Kaede's behalf, throwing an arm across her podium protectively, "Trapping us here, that's just too cruel! Kaede could never do something like that!"

"Really?" Rantaro questioned, "And somebody else here could? The Mastermind has got to be good at hiding their intentions, after all. For all you know, she only even got close to you so that you'd defend her the way you're doing right now," He turned his attention back to Kaede, "Come on, Akamatsu. Prove me wrong."

"Prove? How am I supposed to prove it? All I can do is tell you that I'm not The Mastermind," Kaede asked, her voice strained as she clutched her own podium, staring down at her knuckles, "This trial isn't supposed to be about who the Mastermind is, anyway. It's about who killed Saihara and Tojo."

"You can prove it by telling us how you know those weird, specific rules!" Rantaro shot back.

"I can't do that!" Kaede protested, her voice gaining volume and filling up the entire courtroom, "And if you want to put me on trial, fine. But not right now. Who the Mastermind is, isn't important. We need to uncover the truth about what happened!"

"We'll find out the truth about you, Akamatsu," Monokuma intervened, "After the culprit is voted for, but before they are executed! After all, if Akamatsu was the Mastermind, and you find her out, it wouldn't make sense for the blackened to fulfill their role in the Killing Game. We really should get this trial back on track, though!"

"...Thank you, Monokuma," Kaede said, then released her grip and looked around the room again, "We were in the middle of alibis for Tojo's death."

"I also have no alibi," Miu said, "I was investigating on my own."

"I ended up working with Gokuhara," Tsumugi said, "But I think at Tojo's time of death we were actually apart, so that's no alibi for us either. I saw Amami going upstairs when I was going down though, so I think _he_ ended up too far away to be a suspect."

Kiibo spoke up, "I was with Tojo at first, but after visiting my lab, we split up in our investigation. However, I went to see Ouma in the infirmary just after the time of death. There's no way I could have gotten all the way from the boiler room to the infirmary in that time."

"It's true," Kokichi said, "Idabashi has an alibi for this murder, from me. That also means I have an alibi from him."

"I don't have an alibi," Ryoma said, "This is very strange, indeed. The biggest suspects in this murder, motive-wise, have airtight alibis... Chabashira and Ouma never got along with Tojo, and I could even see either of them killing Tojo if they believed her to be Saihara's killer. However, these alibis can't possibly come into question."

"So you were the one who trapped us, Hoshi?" Tenko questioned, staring at him from across the room, "You don't have an alibi for Tojo's time of death, and you're the only one who knew that Akamatsu and I were down in that hole!"

"I couldn't have possibly done that," Ryoma said, "I can't move that manhole cover at all. Akamatsu could almost budge it, but I couldn't. All we could do combined was wiggle it a little, so clearly, I didn't add much at all to Akamatsu's strength. And did you forget the reason I didn't go with you into the hole?"

"You said you couldn't do the ladder. I just thought that meant you were afraid of heights," Kaede said.

"And strength isn't a factor," Tenko said, "Anyone could shove that manhole cover across flat ground! That'd be how the culprit who killed Saihara closed it up in the first place. All that requires any strength is removing it from the hole, not placing it."

"Not anyone," Ryoma said, "Because I couldn't shove that manhole cover back on top. You have noticed how much shorter I am than any of you? I could never get any leverage. I also get winded easily, and I have very little muscle mass. I was hoping I wouldn't have to mention this, but I suffer from a rare bone disease which stunted my growth. Had I taken the time to do physical therapy, and put in the work of course, I could be just as athletic as anyone else. However, I never did. I'm much too weak to have trapped you in there, even if you think I have motive."

"You really think I'll believe such a stupid lie?" Tenko questioned.

"I don't think he's lying," Tsumugi spoke up, quiet as she locked eyes with him, "But isn't this easy enough to prove?"

"That's true," Ryoma said, "Give me a physical challenge, and I promise you I'll fail it."

"Ehh..." Monokuma interrupted, "I don't want to make a wreck of my courtroom or make a mockery of the proceedings by doing something like that, geeze! I'll just tell you. Hoshi isn't lying about his medical history, and I actually have the records. I'm not just taking him at his word; I know the truth. Hoshi never tried enough when he was younger, to get over his sickness, and now he's truly pathetic with no hope of ever getting to even acceptable shape."

"Well, that ruins my theory," Tenko groaned, leaning on her podium, "But, I was so convinced that this was intentional. Nobody except Hoshi even knew we were down there, right?"

"It wouldn't be too difficult to figure out, though," Rantaro said, "For the culprit who killed Saihara. That person would notice that the manhole had been lifted again, after they'd covered it, right? And then all they'd need to do would be hearing you down there. And if the culprit is the same one who killed Tojo, they obviously aren't afraid to return to the crime scene. Probably looking to obscure the investigation, and what better way to obscure it than to get Chabashira and Akamatsu killed?"

"If this really was all one person," Kiibo said, "Then they tried to get fouror five people killed today. All the more reason we need to figure out who it was and bring them to justice. And we're still getting nowhere. So... Why don't we circle back around to Ouma's mysterious injury? Maybe if we can figure out who did that, it'll lead us to the other answers we need."

"I've been thinking about that," Kokichi spoke up, "I think... I might have done it to myself."

"What do you mean?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow, "Why would you have? You didn't know Saihara was dead until we came to get you. Unless... You..."

"No, it's nothing like that. I didn't kill Shuichi," Kokichi said, "And I didn't hurt myself on purpose. I did wake up this way. I was trying to figure out, how I could have fallen asleep, and I realized it all added up."

"...Ouma, you said once that if you used a sleeping pill, it would probably make you uncomfortable when you woke up, right?" Angie asked, getting where he was going with it.

"Yes. It would explain how I was able to wake up with no memory of falling asleep, and without Shuichi there. And... Sleeping pills never worked for me before, because I'm susceptible to parasomnias if I take them. Sleepwalking, that sort of thing," He explained, "And I did still have a literal pile of swords sitting under the coffee table in my room. Chances are... I got drugged with sleeping pills, somehow, and in sleepwalking managed to fall on those swords. It wasn't an attempt to murder me... But it was an attempt to keep me out of the picture long enough for the culprit to get away with this."

"Maybe," Kaede realized, looking around the room, "We were all abnormally tired. And we all slept through morning announcements... Or, maybe most of us did. It could be that the culprit drugged _everyone_."


	101. Third Trial: Sleeping Pills

"You mean," Kiibo started, "Somebody found a way to slip sleeping pills to everybody? Why would they do that, though?"

"My guess would be," Kaede said, "In order to get away with it. The culprit in this case may actually be trying to avoid being branded the blackened, so they can go to the outside world. Maybe, it didn't even have to be Saihara; That was just a way to try framing Ouma. If everyone was sound asleep, the culprit could move about at nighttime without any worries, and could even switch victims if something went wrong."

"You're still acting on the assumption that Ouma isn't lying, though," Miu said, "Not that I think he is, but... The sleeping pill theory only really works if he's telling the truth about that. Right now, our prime suspect is either an unknown who drugged everyone somehow, or Ouma who's lying about it."

"I'm not lying," Kokichi said, "Just check the infirmary. Monokuma added a rule to our Monopads sometime after it opened up saying that any empty bottles may not be thrown away, but returned to the infirmary's storage area to be refilled 'after three more time announcements'."

"How did you know that, Ouma?" Kaede asked, flipping through her Monopad to find that he was telling the truth about the added rule.

"After Shuichi told me that there was a new rule because I skipped breakfast, I decided to look through the rules and see if any others had been added," Kokichi said, "There was the infirmary rule, and the rule about the motives., and there was actually one more that wasn't there from the beginning. It said that there will no longer be punishments given for breaking into sealed-off Ultimate Labs. Though, that's a strange thing to add, since it was minor punishments from the beginning..."

"You're right," Kaede said, spotting the other additions, plus the most recent one of how 'double jeopardy' functioned. She looked to Ryoma, "Hoshi, were any of the bottles in the infirmary empty?"

"I don't think so," He said, then stepped back to give her his Monopad, "You can check the photos from here, but make sure to get it straight back to me, okay?"

"Right," Kaede agreed, then started studying the pictures as the others continued the conversation around her.

"If sleeping pills were used," Rantaro said, "Then somebody needed the opportunity to use them. Just like the first trial, that idea sort of points to Iruma again."

"It does," Miu said, "Except, I haven't prepared a meal since breakfast two days ago. Tojo heated up and served meals I'd frozen for dinner that day, and both meals yesterday. But... Seeing as she's become a victim now, I have no idea what to think."

"Well," Kaede spoke up, "These photographs of the bottles in the infirmary... The labels are all mixed up, but a bunch of them only look three quarters full. They have different labels, but the pills inside on these ones look all the same... The weird thing is, the most common label on them is for anxiety medication," She explained, bringing the Monopad back to Ryoma then returning to her own podium, "But, I took a bottle of sleeping pills to my room right when the infirmary opened up, as well as some iron supplements. Those pills look a lot like the melatonin pills."

"So are you saying that somebody wanted to obscure the fact that sleeping pills were used? Why the number of them labeled as anxiety meds?" Miu asked, "That seems kind of excessive, if everything else is super randomized!"

"Maybe..." Gonta offered shyly, "Labels change twice?"

"Good point, Gokuhara," Kokichi observed, "Maybe the culprit found some way to convince Tojo to put anxiety medication in the food, but had switched the labels to get her to give sleeping pills instead? She could have been made into an unwitting accomplice, and then the culprit killed her so she wouldn't realize it during the trial."

"Or," Rantaro offered, "The concentration is a coincidence and she was a willing accomplice who was killed to tie up loose ends. Or, Tojo was the sole culprit in Saihara's murder, and then she was killed by someone who figured that out, or who was already planning on her murder before Saihara was killed."

"Yes, all of that's possible," Kaede said, 'With Tojo dead, there's actually no way to tell which of those scenarios it was right now. It's not like she's here to confess."

"Whoever committed her murder could explain the situation, though," Angie said, "But it's looking like we don't have enough evidence to freak that person into giving up a confession, huh? That's pretty annoying, if you think about it. We should be able to figure out a little bit more about this whole situation..."

"There just isn't enough evidence," Miu said, "With Tojo out of the picture..."

"Hey, that's bullshit!" Tenko exclaimed, slamming her hands down on her podium, "The killer also tried to get me and Akamatsu out of the way! Why bother trying to do that if the blackened wasn't scared that the two of us could figure it out, even with Tojo dead too?"

"I have an idea, then," Miu said, "There's bound to be something someone knows or that they're carrying, or something. Can everybody empty their pockets onto their podiums?" Nobody protested, and once the items were out, Miu looked to Kaede, "Akamatsu, could you investigate the items?"

"Yeah, I can," Kaede said, stepping out in front of her podium again, starting at Tsumugi's. After discovering that all Tsumugi had been carrying was some lab notes, she spoke to her, "Could you help me do it faster? You're good at finding important evidence."

"Of course," Tsumugi nodded, then stepped around as well to investigate on her own.

Kaede was the one who got to Kokichi's podium, and found his items set upon it. She looked through it, and he didn't seem perturbed. All he'd been carrying was his Monopad, some lint, and a crumpled piece of paper. Kaede opened it, but didn't read it aloud as she stared in shock at its contents.

 

_Dear Kiibo Idabashi. I hope this helps. There are some documents here which can help you to improve your talent on a usual basis, but this is the main aspect of your Ultimate Lab. Hidden around the campus you'll find the instructions needed to combine these chemicals to create an antidote to Despair Fever. If you suspect any of your peers are suffering it, please put this to use. As the Ultimate Supreme Leader, I trust this can be your responsibility. Sincerely, Monokuma._


	102. Third Trial: Letters from Monokuma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has passed some big milestones; 100,000 words, 100 chapters, but that's just because I'm the idiot who won't stop writing the thing. Today, I'd like to thank every one of you for an even more important milestone. 1,000 kudos on this singular work. I never could have dreamed I'd write something that people would like that much, so I'm thanking each and every one of you. Here's hoping I can keep meeting your standards till the end. <3

"Hey, everybody?" Kaede spoke up, turning to address everyone else from where she stood in front of Kokichi's podium, "Could you do something for me, please? Everyone, close your eyes. Then, and I'll be the only one to know this, raise a hand if you've received a letter addressed to you, straight from Monokuma."

Kaede was surprised as everyone complied, looking around the room. Kokichi, Kiibo, Miu, Ryoma, and Gonta didn't raise their hands. Everyone left did. With that, Kaede returned to her own podium, "Okay, that's fine. First things first, I'll reveal my own. I was afraid to admit it, but now that I know I'm not alone... I received a letter from Monokuma. It said..." She pulled it out to read it verbatim.

"Dear Kaede Akamatsu, I hope this helps! As the Ultimate Detective, I think you could really use this. Detailed on the back you'll find some more specifics on the murder-related technicalities, as well as a list of the order everyone's motives will be revealed in. Sincerely, Monokuma. Now flip me over!" She read, then spoke for herself, "The back's arbitrary, but that's what it said. And I just found that Ouma was in possession of one of these addressed to Idabashi."

"That is suspicious," Ryoma said, "Ouma, having somebody else's note?"

"It's my mistake," Kokichi said, "I found it in Idabashi's lab, and I thought that something called Despair Fever... Would be better kept a secret. So I took it and held onto it."

"I have to admit, Ouma," Kiibo spoke up, "That was actually quite a smart idea. Unfortunately, I'm already well-aware of the existence of Despair Fever. Fortunately, hiding that note from me was still a good idea. It would only have given me false hope, after all. There is no such thing as a cure for Despair Fever."

"I'd like to hear other people's notes from Monokuma," Kaede said, "I feel like, since they were delivered after the end of the last trial, they could be just as important as the motives handed out for this case."

"I think so too," Tsumugi said, turning to lock eyes with Kaede, "But, before I share my own, I have to bring something forward. I'm sorry Kaede, but I have to... If Kaede knew ahead of time the order the motives would be released in, then it's completely possible she did one of these murders, Saihara's I would assume, in order to prevent my motive from being released. I made her promise not to do it, but..."

"I understand," Kaede said, "We need to examine every possibility. But given what we do know about this murder, I couldn't have done it. It seems much too time-sensitive for somebody like me, doesn't it?"

"True," Tsumugi said, "And it was hard to wake you in the morning, too. So you were definitely also drugged."

"Unless," Angie offered, "Sounds bad, but, Akamatsu already admitted to having her own sleeping pills in her room. Isn't that possible? And there's always that little possibility that the problem with her sense of time was actually the lie within her motive."

"That's not a lie," Tsumugi said, "I'm very certain of that much. Between that, and Kaede's promise to me that she wouldn't kill someone just to protect me, I can say that she is not the blackened. Besides, if she were... Then Tojo's killer would still be somebody else, and why in the world would Kaede choose to kill Saihara to protect me? Why leave me behind and tear Saihara away from Ouma in one fell swoop? That's absurd."

"Unless that's just what she wants you to think," Rantaro said, but then shook his head, "No, I'm letting my earlier suspicions cloud my judgment now. Especially with Akamatsu's letter from Monokuma in play. That knowledge was what I was basing my idea that she could be the Mastermind on, so I see now that it isn't true. I think we're picking a suspect unfairly."

"Since that's all cleared up, we can skip the bonus trial after all! It's way too early for you guys to find the Mastermind anyway," Monokuma added in.

"Right," Tsumugi said, "Anyway, my letter..." She wasn't carrying it on her, but she recited as much as she could remember, "Dear Tsumugi Shirogane, as the Ultimate Astronaut, I hope that you will find this to be useful. Somewhere in this school is the key to space travel for those physically unsuited to it. It's two items in a hidey-hole! If you find them, I know you'll be able to figure out how they combine to make it possible. I couldn't do it, but somebody like you totally can! Love, Monokuma."

"Another 'somewhere in this school' letter," Kiibo noted, "Like the one intended for me. I'm going to assume that these notes are full of lies, and... Chances are, they were intended to isolate us. Were we to go searching the school for these secret items on our own, we'd be alone and vulnerable. Putting Monokuma's signature on these letters could have been a motivator for us not to share them with each other."

"Maybe for you guys," Kaede said, "I was actually on gag order not to mention my letter for as long as it was the only letter from Monokuma that I knew existed. That's why I couldn't defend myself from your accusation, Amami."

"A good point," Rantaro agreed, then spoke out, "My letter, then. Like Shirogane, this is just from memory. Dear Rantaro Amami, I hope that you can find this useful as the Ultimate Inventor. If you survive until the end of the Annual Killing Game, that means no killing and no dying, everyone will be rewarded in the form of an AE. What's AE stand for? You'll remember eventually, if you live _that_ long. Sincerely, Monokuma."

Angie called out, "I got one too! But Shirogane has it now."

"Right," Tsumugi remembered she'd grabbed it for evidence, then read it out, "Dear Angie Yonaga. As the Ultimate Pianist, I wonder if this would be useful to you? Shucks, I'll just come right out and say it. If you could play the right song, I wonder if you could end this Killing Game early? But I won't give you a hint about what song it is, I guess you'll have to figure it out on your own. Or there'll be some hint somewhere, someday? Who knows! Lot's of love, Monokuma XOXO!"

"I just have mine memorized, too," Tenko announced, "Dear Tenko Chabashira. Is this useful to the Ultimate Anthropologist? There's a secret way out of the Ultimate Academy! Where is it? Not telling. Does it actually take you outside, or just show you the outside? And is it worth the trouble it would take to actually get there? From your friend, Monokuma."

"Chabashira, could that be referring to..." Kaede pondered.

"I think it is. The exit tunnel, but... the letter's right. It really isn't worth the trouble," Tenko said, then leaned forward on her podium, "So, we all got these notes. But Idabashi's note didn't have any useful info on it, so we can't trust any of the other notes either."

"That's correct," Kiibo said, "However, Akamatsu's note and Chabashira's note both seem to have been proven to some extent. Perhaps my note could have some truth behind it; Perhaps Despair Fever has made its way into our numbers."

"Oh my..." Tsumugi muttered, then looked up and made eye contact with Kiibo, "Idabashi... What exactly _is_ Despair Fever anyway?"


	103. Third Trial: Despair Fever

"Despair fever is... Something horrible," Kiibo answered, "It's what the Future Foundation is meant to be fighting against. It's a disease which inspires sadness and despair. Once somebody is infected with it, they lose control of themselves, falling victim to utter despair. Whatever the most potent form of despair is for that person, they'll suffer it."

"Do you seriously think that could have come here?" Tsumugi asked.

"I've suspected it for a while now," Kiibo said, "Starting with you, Shirogane. When you broke down in front of us at breakfast, I began to think you could have Despair Fever. And it only seemed to spread to everyone at a rapid pace. Then, Tojo told me that _I_ hadn't been acting like myself. I didn't want to believe it, but... I believe that even I have been afflicted with Despair Fever. This Academy has become a den of sickness."

"You really think so?" Tsumugi questioned, then frowned as she held her hands in close to herself, "Idabashi. That's really what you believe?"

Kiibo froze, realizing he'd said too much, but he couldn't backtrack now, "What other explanation could there be, for how we're all falling to pieces so much? Even me... There's no way I would have fallen so far from my ideals were I not infected."

"Good grief," Tenko hissed through her teeth, "You're an idiot, Idabashi. We're falling apart because all the worst things about us are being put on display by Monokuma! It's too obvious that even though you're a Tragic Ultimate too, you have no experience dealing with other people who have shitty pasts!"

"Maybe I don't, but I have plenty of experience dealing with Despair Fever, and that's what's going on here. I know that much to be true, for certain," Kiibo proclaimed, looking around the room, "Everyone is afflicted, I'm sure of it. You're all suffering, and you can't even understand why. It's horrific. And my own condition... Has only worsened with the death of my dear friend Tojo."

"We're no closer to figuring out the culprit in either of these murders," Kaede said, looking down at the floor, "All we know is that whatever happened, Tojo was wittingly or unwittingly involved in Saihara's murder. If it were wittingly... It's possible she was in the boiler room to put the manhole cover on, then somebody else killed her there."

"That still begs the question of how she would have known you were down there," Ryoma said, "I expected you wouldn't be down very long at all, I didn't even mention it to anyone after the body was found there. I'd assumed you already left."

"Iruma was letting people know we went to the boiler room to investigate, though," Kaede said.

"Yeah, I told anyone who asked where you were. Unfortunately, that was almost everyone. Tojo and Idabashi asked, and when I directed them where you were, they split up," Miu answered, "I also told Amami, but he didn't go that way. Same with Yonaga. Though in all those cases... Chabashira was the only one who I told you'd still be there. I told the others that was just the last place I knew you were."

"That supports the idea that Tojo could have trapped us underground," Tenko said, "But it still doesn't really tell us who killed her, if she was the only one who went in that direction."

"That's right," Kaede said, "We're no better off. This keeps happening... We just don't have enough evidence in this trial. I feel like we're missing something really important, just one thing, and if we got it then the whole thing would unravel..."

"Maybe," Miu said, "We could figure out why the body discovery announcement sounded when I walked into the boiler room? It doesn't make much sense that it would be the sequential rule. I think it's because Akamatsu and Chabashira knew someone had died. How did you know it anyway?"

"I heard yelling above us," Tenko said, "So I thought maybe if I got higher up, they'd be able to hear me yelling for help. While I was going up the ladder, though, blood dripped on me."

"So Tojo was in an argument with somebody when she was killed?" Rantaro asked.

"That would explain why she looked like she died angry," Kaede said, "So... Did somebody confront her over Saihara's murder, after figuring out that she needed to be an accomplice?"

"Maybe," Ryoma said, "But the two people most likely to have figured that out were trapped underneath the boiler room when Tojo was killed."

"Just because we're the ones who are best at figuring these things out doesn't mean that somebody else couldn't," Kaede said, "Amami and Shirogane are scientists too, and Gokuhara, Ouma, and Iruma are really people-smart. Then Yonaga always knows weird things because of Atua or whatever. And you're smart enough to figure it out too, Hoshi. Anyone could know the truth if they put their mind to it hard enough. So the most likely people to think that hard... would be Ouma or Shirogane."

"That's right," Kokichi said, "You and me and Shirogane were closest to Shuichi after all... But I still have that alibi. Idabashi saw me in the infirmary too close to when the murder occurred. It couldn't have been me... But it could have been Shirogane, couldn't it?"

"That's true..." Kaede mumbled, then turned to look at Tsumugi, "But, Tsumugi. Why would you do something like that? I can understand wanting revenge for Saihara's death, but... I promised I wouldn't leave you behind. Shouldn't that promise go both ways?"

"Just because I could have done it doesn't mean I did. Yonaga doesn't have an alibi either, and Iruma still could have done it if she just left the room then came back," Tsumugi said, defending herself, then pushed her glassed up her nose.

"Hm, yeah, I could have done it," Angie said, running a hand back through her hair, "It's totally possible. I liked Saihara too, we got along. Not amazingly well like some of the others, yeah, but he's nice. He... was nice. Sorry. I'm sorry," She moved her hands to cover her face instead, "If you want me to be the blackened, I can do that for you, but I think it's a bad idea."

"All of this is still just conjecture. There isn't evidence here," Rantaro said, groaning, "All that's going to happen is we'll go in circles unless we find something new. Or if somebody confesses to something. We're really lost here."

"I'm sorry everyone," Kaede said, shaking her head, "If I hadn't been an idiot and gotten myself trapped underground, I would have been able to investigate more, and we wouldn't be in this situation."

"I wouldn't be worried about that, Kaede," Tsumugi said, smirking as she turned to look at Kiibo, "Actually, I'm wondering about something else... Idabashi. Why haven't you said anything about the fact that I asked you where Tojo was, and you sent me to the boiler room?"


	104. Third Trial: Confession

"W-What? Shirogane..." Kiibo took a step back at her accusation.

Tsumugi looked around the courtroom, then spoke out, "I'll admit it. I killed Kirumi Tojo. I only let the trial go on this long because I wanted to see if Idabashi would tell you the truth. Since he didn't, that means that he also has _something_ to hide."

"Tsumugi!?" Kaede looked to her, shocked, "Why...?"

"It wasn't just for revenge," Tsumugi said, messing with her hair in her nerves, "It was also because, Kaede, I was scared that you were the culprit. Since my motive still wasn't out, and you... I told Hoshi that I was afraid I'd have to watch you die... And he told me that certain double jeopardy rules might mean the first killer could survive, if somebody else died. And I realized Tojo had to be involved too. So I took a chance."

"How did Hoshi know about double jeopardy rules?" Miu asked.

"Cat's out of the bag," Angie said, "Though, I think it would be anyway soon. More Ultimate Labs are gonna open up soon, and Hoshi's could be one of them, and everyone would know then regardless. Hoshi's talent is the Ultimate Survivor. He's lived through two other Killing Games."

"This is true," Ryoma said, "And while I can't remember names or faces, I do remember a lot about what happened. Both of those previous killing games had different double jeopardy rules. One was that both blackened are executed. Another was that only the second blackened was executed. Of course, in both of those cases, it turned out to be only one blackened who committed a double murder."

"This case is different than those ones," Tsumugi said, raising her eyebrows, "There are two blackened. I killed Tojo. However, somebody else killed Saihara. I'm going to say that it was Idabashi, since he stayed quiet about the fact that there's no way he couldn't have known that I was the one who killed Tojo."

"So..." Kaede started, "What were you arguing with her about anyway?"

"She was saying that there's no way she was an accomplice in the murder. She was just as shocked as anyone else to find out it happened... Which, at the time, made me think even more that it could have been Kaede. If anybody could know how to fool everyone, even her own accomplice, it would be the Ultimate Detective," Tsumugi explained, "She said that the death had to be unrelated to her actions. She wouldn't tell me who told her to do those things which set up the murder. She was so angry... That I would decide to kill someone. She didn't try to get away or anything. She just shouted at me for becoming this kind of person."

"Of course she wouldn't give away the person who told her to do it," Tenko said, "Tojo wouldn't want to believe she'd been an accessory to murder. And she wouldn't want to believe the person who directed her to do this was a a murderer. It was somebody she trusted..."

"Idabashi, you said it yourself," Kaede said, looking at Kiibo, "You're the first person that Tojo has trusted in a long time. She really trusted you, and nobody else. So you're the only person she would want to cover for enough to yell at her killer and still keep your name quiet. And you counted on her doing that, didn't you? At least, for long enough."

"Akamatsu... What are you saying?" Kiibo questioned, furrowing his brow.

"You knew that you could become a suspect if you killed Tojo to keep her quiet. So instead, you took the opportunity to let Tsumugi kill her for you," Kaede said, pointing at Kiibo, "Thus, you could give yourself an alibi for the second murder! Then, as we all assumed that the murders were done by the same person, you'd fall out of suspicion in our eyes. You could even ask Tojo to make sure the manhole was still covered and she wouldn't question you."

"Of anybody here... Why would I kill Saihara?" Kiibo asked, "I had no problems with him!"

"That's why," Kaede said, "You had no motive to kill Saihara. But you did know that everyone was tense about Ouma's motives, and Saihara was closer to him than anybody else. Ouma received his dose of sleeping pills both sooner and larger than everyone else, so that you could frame him, right?"

"You're just making assumptions!" Kiibo exclaimed, "Why are you coming after me, when Shirogane's admitted to killing Tojo? What reason would I even have? Besides, you still don't even know how Saihara got from the lab to the boiler room-"

"I'm guessing Tojo also would have known about that. There must have been a passage. Monokuma said there was no passage between the rooms, but seeing as it plays with words all the time, maybe the passage only works from one side and wouldn't count as between. You were trying to get away with it," Kaede said, "So I'd assume your goal was either to leave this place, or get everybody killed. So which is it, Idabashi?"

"I am not a murderer!" Kiibo protested, "And you have no proof that anyone could get between those rooms at all."

"Well," Monokuma spoke up, "Akamatsu's right. I'll admit that, since the only people who knew about it are either dead or denying it right now. If we left that up in the air, then we'd get nowhere. If the 'floating box' trick is set on a particular part of the floor in that lab, a door opens between it and the boiler room. Idabashi and Tojo discovered it after getting stuck in the lab at nighttime before the magic show."

"Right, murderer's a little bit harsh, isn't it?" Kaede prodded, "That implies you did it out of cruelty, but your only intention was to get away with it and stop the fever, right?"

"Huh...?" Kiibo's volume dropped and he just stared at her.

"Did you think I wouldn't figure it out?" Kaede asked, "If you get away with murder here, then everybody else is killed. I'm sure that as somebody who promised to shoulder the burden of everybody's problems, you would want to do whatever it takes to stop despair fever. Even if freeing us from our despair meant killing us all."

"So that's it, isn't it? Idabashi killed Saihara, and I killed Tojo. It looks like you will have to vote between us," Tsumugi said, "I won't tell you what you should do, of course. It's up to you... Which of us is worse."

"Hey!" Angie called out, "Before we vote, uh, I'm still real confused about how everything happened. Akamatsu? Can you explain? Is that something you can do, like with the other trials?"

"...Yes, I can," Kaede said, "Of course, Yonaga. I'm sorry that you're confused, but I think that we all are, in some amount. And we need to all know everything about the situation, if we are to... Make a decision."


	105. Third Trial: Closing Argument

[Kaede Akamatsu's Third Closing Argument: BEGIN]

This murder began yesterday morning, when it's likely that Tojo received instruction from the first culprit to give everyone anxiety medicine in an attempt to resolve the recent problems we've all been having. Though, the culprit had previously traded the labels for the anxiety medication and the sleeping pills. Now, the pills we have here _are_ a weak form, which with some effort, one can be woken up from. Ouma's were delivered in a higher dose at breakfast, as the culprit wanted to lure Saihara to Ouma's lab just before nighttime.

Saihara followed the instructions on the note left taped to Ouma's door, or on the floor in front of it perhaps, and then found himself trapped inside of the magician's lab. It's likely that the culprit hid within one of the other tricks and waited for Saihara's sleeping pill to take effect. Seeing as it's a weaker form, a light sleeper like Saihara could be woken up even under the effect of it. Chances are he may have even been used to using them to sleep in the outside world, while still needing to be able to wake up in the event of danger. It didn't take much of the culprit dragging him through the lab and into the boiler room, where the box and swords had been stashed ahead of time, to wake him.

When Saihara did wake up, the culprit panicked and attacked him with one of the swords. Blood fell into the hole in the boiler room, and the open manhole cover. The culprit was prepared for this, though, and bandaged the wound to avoid leaving a trail behind and stashed Saihara, likely still alive but not conscious from the shock, in the box. Using that same sword, the culprit got leverage to flip the manhole cover onto the hole, thus hiding all blood on the scene from view. Then, the culprit moved the box and swords to the courtyard.

Once there, the culprit removed the bandage and propped Saihara up within the box and drove the swords through his body. Then, the culprit used their remaining time before everybody else woke up. They washed the bandages they'd used and returned them to the infirmary's gauze store... and traded the labels on the medicines around even more, so it would be harder to tell which were used. In addition, the culprit redistributed pills to fill the empty bottle of sleeping pills back up, so there wouldn't be a conspicuously empty bottle. Instead, just several slightly-emptied containers that a keen eye wouldn't pick up on.

The next day, the culprit pretended to be waking up at the same time as all of us. After learning from Iruma that Chabashira and I had gone to the boiler room to investigate, the culprit sent Tojo to seal us underground, knowing that we would investigate the manhole. She was likely also told to stay in the boiler room in order to take the fall if anyone did know that we were down there.

The culprit knew they couldn't get rid of Tojo on their own, but they were still worried that she would end up revealing what she knew during the trial, when she realized that she'd been helping the culprit commit a murder. Then, the culprit saw an opportunity in the second culprit. They likely dropped an extra hint about Tojo's involvement in Saihara's murder, to throw fuel on the fire, and told the second culprit that Tojo was in the boiler room.

The second culprit took a sword out from the box and brought it to the boiler room. They got into an argument with Tojo, then killed her. And that's it for the order of events.

The first culprit was Kiibo Idabashi, and the motive was to get away with it and cause the deaths of everyone infected with Despair Fever.

The second culprit was Tsumugi Shirogane, and the motives were revenge for Tojo's part in Saihara's murder, and to create a second culprit in case the first culprit had been me.

[Kaede Akamatsu's Third Trial Closing Argument: END]

"How..." Kiibo spoke up, "How did you know about the bandage?"

Kaede answered as Kokichi held up his arm in silence, "Ouma accidentally used it. I could tell immediately looking at it that as much as it may have seemed like a fresh strip of gauze, it had been used before. I put together the information and determined the only reason the bandage would have been so thoroughly cleaned would be if it had been used in the murder. And that would explain how Saihara's body was transported without leaving any blood behind."

"I see," Kiibo said, sighing, "Well, I can't argue with you on this matter. All I can do..." He looked around the room, "Is ask everyone. Please. Don't vote for me... And don't vote for Shirogane either. You need to understand that I'm doing this for you. Despair fever would only continue to eat away at you, and death is a much kinder fate."

"That's bullshit!" Tenko shouted out, slamming a hand down on her podium, "There's no way. Because... It was only when I came to this place that I really wanted to live! The first time in my life that I felt afraid to die! There's no way that we've got despair fever and became worse off now than we were before. Because at least... We have each other."

"You can say that," Kiibo said, "But that's just because it hasn't gotten worse yet-"

"No!" Angie called out to him, "That's not it at all! You're just too proud to admit that you were wrong about this. You don't want to admit that you killed Saihara for no reason, just because you don't know how to handle people who are just sad, but aren't in despair. There's no despair fever here... But you've fallen into True Despair anyway."

"Me...?" Kiibo questioned, "No, even with the fever... True Despair, that's just too far to fall. There's no way that I could have..."

"Idabashi," Kokichi said, his voice low and quivering in an attempt to mask his anger, the only thing he'd say to a man like this, "You hardly even blinked when your closest friend here, a girl who trusted you beyond anybody else, was killed. You encouraged it, to cover up your plan to have every one of us murdered. Can you really claim that you're still the Kiibo Idabashi you wanted to be?"

"No," Kiibo admitted, slouching and staring at his feet, "I can't."


	106. Third Trial: Election

"Thank you, Idabashi," Angie said, "And, given the opportunity, you'd change, right? You'd try to defeat the despair inside of you?"

"Defeat the despair inside of me?" Kiibo asked, looking at the palms of his hands, "If only that were possible. If I've already fallen this far, there's no coming back. I'd ask, when we vote. Vote for me, or vote for someone who was not the blackened. My goal... I still feel it within me, that it would be better everyone died here, than returned to the outside world. As if there's something just out of reach that I should have remembered by now..."

"Or," Angie said, "Monokuma, what happens if there's a tie, huh?"

"Well," Monokuma shrugged, "In the unlikely event of a tie... I can't tell you that! You mushy idiots would conspire if I did..."

"That means that something good can happen if it's a tie," Angie said, "So we should all agree to make it a tie, right? We'll just assign votes to each person."

"Well, that's scary too..." Gonta said, frowning, "What if tie is bad thing? Like both die? Gonta doesn't want any more friends to die."

"Uh," Angie froze, then looked down, "But... Well, maybe if it's a tie, then nobody dies? And I'm sure that both culprits could get better..."

"I don't want that," Kokichi said, staring straight ahead with a malevolent edge to his voice, "I want Shirogane to live. Idabashi killed Shuichi for no reason. Shirogane killed Tojo in revenge for Shuichi's murder, and to try and protect Akamatsu. If Akamatsu had stayed trapped underground, it would have been revenge for her too, and for Chabashira. I don't want to test it... If a tie did mean they both died."

"To tell you the truth," Kaede said, "I don't want to risk it either."

"But I really think..." Angie protested, "Wouldn't it be better if we only lost two friends this trial, not three? Why wouldn't Monokuma tell us, if a tie meant they'd both die?"

"So that we would do it, thinking something good could happen," Tenko said, "We can't trust a thing that Monokuma says."

"Oh, I... Guess," Angie mumbled, looking down, "Then I guess we should just vote as we each see fit, and see what ends up happening? That seems kind of sad, but I guess that's our best option now."

"I guess so," Kaede agreed. With that, the podiums in front of them lit up with voting options. Kaede stared at it for a while, then lifted her hand and put in her decision.

Moments later, Monokuma shouted out, "Now that's a weird result! The votes are in... One vote for Kaede Akamatsu. One vote for Kokichi Ouma. Three votes for Tsumugi Shirogane. Five votes for Kiibo Idabashi."

"What the..." Tsumugi trailed off, then glanced at Kaede and Kokichi before she spoke again, "Even with confessions, and Kaede's closing argument... Who could think it'd be anyone but me and Idabashi? Something must be wrong, Monokuma, can you do a recount?"

"Why would you want me to do that?" Monokuma asked, tilting its head to the side, "After all, this result lets you survive! Every vote we should have is accounted for. I guess you'll just have to worry about who among you doesn't trust your detective anymore! But why should we delay this any longer, anyway? We have a result, so we should have an execution! Oh, by the way... If there _had_ been a tie, Yonaga was right. You would have both lived, though still nobody would escape."

"I'm sorry..." Tsumugi whispered, looking down at her podium, "I'm so sorry this had to happen. If I'd just been thinking clearly, then Tojo wouldn't have needed to die."

"Shirogane," Angie said, looking to her, "Just because you're surviving this trial, don't think you've gotten away with it. We'll be keeping a very close eye on you."

"I understand," Tsumugi said, "Please, feel free to lock me up wherever and however you see fit..."

"Please don't blame yourself, Shirogane," Kiibo spoke, "I still believe that Despair Fever is within this academy-"

"Nope!" Monokuma interrupted, "I can say that now. I was planning to let Despair Fever loose as a motive in the future, though I have the ability to cure it myself, when it's in smaller concentrations. That was a future motive, though, it wasn't even in effect yet. Yonaga's right, Idabashi. You fell into True Despair all on your own."

"All I ever wanted to do..." Kiibo choked out, covering his face with one hand, "Was protect everybody. I wanted to carry all your worries for you and give you the best I could. Instead, I only caused you more pain. And it was just me all along. There was no despair fever, I just let myself think there was... Because I couldn't imagine such despair as I witnessed, as I felt, having a natural cause."

"It's funny, isn't it?" Monokuma asked, "You were trying to be a guardian against despair, but you just ended up causing it. You caused so much of it. The consequences of your actions will stretch throughout all that remains of the Killing Game. You know that, right, Idabashi?"

"I'm well aware of that fact," Kiibo said, "I've driven another one of my peers to murder, and killed one of the brightest lights among us in my attempt to frame another. The despair I've inflicted... I could never call myself the Ultimate Supreme Leader. I am no longer an Ultimate at all."

"That's true actually," Monokuma said, "Seeing as you're about to die, your talent is basically forfeit."

"Come on, Monokuma," Angie protested, "Two people voted weird... Can't we go again? I know Idabashi can change-"

"Even if we voted again, I wouldn't change my vote," Ryoma spoke up, "I'm the one who voted for Ouma. Given the fact that there's a passage between the boiler room and his lab, that makes an alibi of 'not getting between locations quickly' irrelevant. And I believe Shirogane could be covering for him."

"Give it a rest, Hoshi," Tenko snapped at him, "Why are you acting this way?"

"Because..." Ryoma trailed off, then lifted his head and took a deep breath, "Because I'm scared of getting it wrong. Because I don't want to have a murderer still among us when a trial is finished with. I've been through two Killing Games already. It's always the people who let you think they're the most pathetic who end up having the most malevolence."

"Shut up," Kokichi said, staring straight through Ryoma with a heavy glare, "I wouldn't. I wouldn't have done something like that. I can't say I wouldn't kill in revenge, but I was too busy trying to figure out the origin of my own mysterious injury to even put two and two together. Besides, does it really matter? Idabashi is the one who was voted for. No matter what happened, there would still be a murderer among us. And just because you've been through a killing game before doesn't mean that you're the expert on everything that can happen in one, and you're no expert on us, either."

"You're right," Ryoma said, "But I also don't want anyone to be willfully ignorant of the possibility. We're planning to punish Shirogane for killing Tojo on our own terms, but if she didn't really do it, and you did? Then you're still in a position to commit another murder, and she's suffering for nothing!"

"Ryoma," Tsumugi addressed him, giving a weak but reassuring smile, "I know you're just trying to protect me, but trust me. I did this. I'm not, and I've never been the person that you think I am."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Angie questioned, "Do you two know each other, outside of the Killing Game? I didn't think that was supposed to happen in these things... Part of why it works is because we start as strangers, right? I didn't think _you two_ were getting along or anything! It's kind of surprising."

"You can make fake strangers if their memories are in disarray," Ryoma said, "But that's not what's important right now... is it? We can discuss this some other time. Even if I did change my vote, it would go to Idabashi."

"I understand," Kiibo said, "Monokuma. I'd rather not stand here thinking about the despair I've caused any longer. Could you hurry up and kill me already?"


	107. Third Trial: Execution

[The Ultimate Supreme Leader's Execution: Landslide Loss]

Kiibo Idabashi stood upon a platform. Unlike Maki's execution, which had been on a screen, Kiibo's was right in full view; One wall had come down, and he'd been pulled beyond it before a loose green mesh replaced the missing wall. Beyond it was that platform, and what seemed to be mannequins placed before him.

His hands were glued to a blank piece of computer paper in front of himself. He could move around the platform, but if he tried to step off of it, the nearest mannequin's arms lifted and shoved him back onto it. He found himself looking around, searching for what was actually meant to be deadly here.

He could see nothing, but there was a sudden rumbling. He turned to look behind himself and saw that there were papers fluttering down onto the platform. He leaned down to examine one once it fell onto the wood, and saw that it was a ballot. There was a checkmark next to Monokuma's name. He stood back up, and looked out to the horizon. As the papers continued fluttering down, a mass began to form in the distance, and the rumbling became louder.

It wasn't long before the mass arrived to the platform where Kiibo stood, and he faced it head-on. It was a massive pile of ballots, just like the ones which had fallen ahead of the full set. As the papers flooded over him, the edges flicked against his skin, leaving behind papercuts all over any exposed skin, and even working their way through the fabric of his clothing.

He was completely covered in tiny cuts by the time the sea of ballots settled, pressing up against the green mesh but somehow leaving a tunnel of view to where he still somehow stood. He took a few deep breaths, then turned back around to face where the others were watching. Despite the pained look on his bloodied face, he managed to shout out towards them.

"I'm so sorry!" He yelled, voice distraught and breaking with every syllable, "I just hope that someday, you can forgive me for what I did to you!"

He locked eyes with everyone in turn, one last time, then fell over with a sickening thump. The mannequin audience did exactly the same thing a second later. The ballots started to lose their hold on the fence, falling away to land over the mannequins.

[Execution: END]

As soon as the execution was finished, and everyone stopped staring in shock, Angie and Miu took Tsumugi by the arms to escort her out of the courtroom. Ryoma exchanged a glance with Kaede, then followed close behind them to make sure they weren't too rough with her. Kaede, meanwhile, approached Kokichi. Rantaro and Gonta left too, then looked back, and decided to let the others get the next elevator up.

Tenko, Kokichi, and Kaede were left alone in the courtroom. Kaede didn't mind that Tenko was still there, knowing that of anyone, Tenko still believed in him the most, "Ouma. Let's get upstairs, okay?"

"I don't know," Kokichi muttered, "Now that the trial's over, it's really starting to hit me, that the truth is... He's really gone."

"You know," Tenko said, walking over there as well with her hands on her hips, "There's one thing. Idabashi died, and he didn't have to be very long without the person he cared about most here. You've already been without Saihara for longer than that, so you've already proved you're really goddamn strong. It's fine if you break down now."

"That's a weird way of looking at it," Kokichi said, "But thanks, Chabashira."

"We should at least get out of this shitty courtroom," Tenko said, grabbing Kokichi by his uninjured arm, "It's a terrible atmosphere. At least if you get back to your room, you can try to relax..."

"Yeah, I don't know about that," Kokichi said, but did stand up, "I'll make it to dinner, though. I can do that much."

"Are you sure?" Kaede asked, "I can bring you food, if you want."

"No, you'll have to bring food to Shirogane," Kokichi said, "When I was skipping meals before, it was because I was afraid to face my own problems, or let people see how I was feeling. Now, they've seen it. And, here's hoping they'll forget about those motives and just pity me for the bigger reason."

"Ouma," Tenko said, "Can you tell us what the lie was?"

Kokichi just stared at her for a while before he did answer, his voice bitter, "The lie was that I'd killed somebody before. But don't you go thinking that means Monokuma ever really told the whole truth."

"I understand," Tenko said, "Believe me, Ouma. I understand."

Kaede hesitated a minute as they walked in silence toward the elevator, but couldn't avoid speaking to him again, "Ouma, how in the world are you going to get any sleep now?"

Kokichi didn't respond until they were already in the elevator, going up to return to the unfortunate daily life of the Ultimate Academy, "I guess I'll figure something out."

"Do you even trust anybody here enough anymore?" Tenko questioned, and her words cut right to the point. Kokichi once again stayed silent for quite a while. Once the elevator opened onto the Shrine of Judgment, he stepped forward.

He turned to look at Kaede and Tenko, then shook his head with those simple words, "I don't think so, no. Not even you."

"I know," Tenko said, then stepped off the elevator herself. Kaede watched, but didn't move. The doors closed, but the elevator wouldn't go anywhere unless she hit the button to go back down to the courtroom. Instead, she'd just let it sit here. She leaned back against the wall, then slid down it to sit on the floor of the elevator. She took a few deep breaths, then squeezed her eyes shut and brought her knees up to her chest. It felt like she was trapped underground again, but there was no escape now.

No matter where she went, Kaede would be trapped by the results of this trial.


	108. Daily Life: Day Eight (Prison)

Kaede got up the nerve to leave the elevator.

It wasn't an easy task, but she did it. She wandered out into the courtyard to see that the crime scene had already been cleaned up. She wondered if there were multiple Monokumas, and only one watched the trial while others worked to tidy crime scenes so that the school would feel normal again once the trial was completed.

Normal. Yeah, right. The entire atmosphere of the student body shifted with every case that happened, and there were people missing. Two, and two, and three now. There were nine people still alive. Nearly half of their peers had lost their lives to this Killing Game. Kaede knew the idea; The Killing Game would likely not end until five or fewer people remained alive. That was one of the general constants of a game like this, in the memories she'd had returned to her. She couldn't stand the idea of losing anybody else now.

And where... Was Tsumugi? Kaede needed to talk to her. She walked toward the school to try and find anybody else, someone who might know where she'd ended up. She didn't like the idea, that Tsumugi was going to be restrained somewhere, but she understood. Someone who confessed to participating in the Killing Game couldn't be trusted to walk around freely. Kaede eventually found Angie back in her lab, and she knocked on the doorframe to get her attention. Angie turned around on the bench, then stood up and greeted her, "Akamatsu. Do you need something?"

"Yes," Kaede said, "I'd like to know where Tsumugi is. I know you, Iruma, and Hoshi were handling the plan of... Imprisoning her somewhere."

"Monokuma helped us with that, actually," Angie said, folding her arms over her chest, "It made some changes to her lab, like adding a private bathroom... Enlarging and reinforcing the hedge fence, and putting a lock on the gate. So that she could still use her Ultimate Lab. Ah, the gate apparently uses a fingerprint scanner and opens for anyone but her. It's almost like Monokuma was expecting this to happen. Do you think all of our labs have the ability to turn into cells?"

"Yes, probably," Kaede said, then turned back around, "I'll see you around, Yonaga. Well, maybe not around. Maybe just at mealtimes."

"Why not?" Angie asked, "I thought we got along okay, Akamatsu! And Atua says we're friends..."

"We are," Kaede assured her, "We are friends. And I know that you enjoy my company, Yonaga. But you're not somebody who needs my company."

"I understand," Angie said, then smiled at her, "You must really care about her, if you still want to be with her now."

Kaede shrugged, "Maybe so. But, it could have just as easily been me who killed somebody this past case, you know. I never claimed to be a good person. And if Tsumugi's just as bad as me, then shouldn't I be there for her?"

"Hm," Angie noted, "Yes, I have to say. That is the sort of thing I've noticed about you. But Atua loves you anyway, even if you've got a rotten heart! Though, Akamatsu, it's okay to be angry at her even if you still care."

"Thanks, Yonaga," Kaede said with a nod, "And I am disappointed in her. I'm not about to forgive her or anything."

"Call me Angie," She giggled, "Forgive me if I take advantage of your 'bad person' status, but maybe if you start calling me by my first name, then the person who I like will get jealous."

"Okay then, Angie," Kaede said, and walked out of the door. She made her way back downstairs, then walked into the warehouse. She found shampoo, bodywash, hand soap, and some other things. She stuffed them into a sleeping bag, then went back upstairs and gathered books from her lab in the same way. She carried the assortment of items with her to Tsumugi's lab, got the gate open, then stepped in and set them down. The miscellaneous items, books, and two sleeping bags.

"Kaede...?" Tsumugi asked as she stepped into view from among her garden plants.

Kaede stepped over the items she'd just set on the ground, then tackled Tsumugi, wrapping her tight in a hug that threatened to suffocate her as her emotions finally came flooding out in tears and words, "Tsumugi! I was so scared. I was so terrified when you confessed, I was so afraid that I'd lose you... You idiot."

"Kaede," Tsumugi started, hugging her back, "You mean... You don't hate me?"

"If it makes me a bad person not to hate you," Kaede said as she pulled away, but kept her hands on Tsumugi's shoulders, "Then, fine. I never had that strong a moral compass to begin with, I guess. All I know is that... I care about you. That really is all that I know for certain," She looked Tsumugi right in the eyes, "Hoshi had a point, after all. Ouma's motive became defunct. Idabashi's did too, technically, but I don't honestly believe that he was the only culprit in this case. And you said you killed someone. That's still going to make me upset, but... The others can hold a grudge. Yonaga says that's punishment enough without me turning my back on you too, and I agree."

"Well," Tsumugi said, "I said what I said. As for Ouma, who knows? Can't we just leave that as a mystery? If it wasn't me, I can handle being hated by everyone more than he can right now. You're still alive, after all. And if it was me, then I'm lucky to have survived, and I'll serve out my punishment. Whatever's really the truth can stay my little secret. Something that only I can know about me."

"I'm okay with that," Kaede said, then stepped back and put her hands behind her back, "I'll bring you meals, while you're in here. And I brought you some things to hopefully make you more comfortable in here?"

"Thanks," Tsumugi said, then looked down at the items, "Why two sleeping bags?"

"Well," Kaede said, "Sharing a room with me was helping your nightmares, right? I wouldn't want to just let you go back to having them. Being outside might even make them worse, after all."

"Kaede," Tsumugi said, looking away, "You're being too nice to me. I am a murderer, as far as you know."

"I know," Kaede said, "But I meant what I said about staying by you. Whether it's true or not, and I guess maybe this will make the others hate me too, but I think I'd rather not care. When I was scared that you were going to be executed," Kaede's breath caught in her throat, but then she continued, "I guess I thought that I was smarter than this. That I was prepared to lose you. But I wasn't, and I'm not. Obviously, things won't be the same. I've got some bad feelings about you too, that I'll have to work through, but the good ones are still there, and I don't want to just give those up."

[ This chapter, we get an adorable Tsumugi from askdaponies16!](http://askdaponies16.tumblr.com/post/170266099078/astronauttsumugi-for-all-of-your#notes)


	109. Daily Life: Day Eight (Rantaro's Expired Motives)

Kaede went to dinner. She'd offered to Tsumugi that she would just bring back her own plate and eat with her, but Tsumugi said that she needed to keep communicating with the others to make sure they wouldn't lose faith in her. As much as Kaede was okay with letting her ties to the others be sacrificed, as she knew that the two besides Tsumugi still alive that she considered real friends wouldn't hold it against her... She needed them to believe her for the sake of any future trials which she hoped, but didn't have much faith in the idea, wouldn't happen.

When she arrived, she noted that Miu had returned the tables to a singular state. There was no reason for there to be a divide anymore; Kokichi had lost any motivation to be a leader, and Kiibo was dead. His words echoed in Kaede's ears as she made this observation, and she shook when she took her seat, trembling in place at the memory of his last moments. She'd believed in him. Even still, he'd become what he hated so much. True Despair. Somehow, those words sounded more familiar than they ought to, and shook Kaede to her core.

There was no reason that so many people needed to die. It was all the result of a misunderstand on Kiibo's part, because he'd lost his grip on reality and become this 'True Despair' thing. He'd lost his own life, and Kirumi's, and killed Shuichi of all people. Of course Tsumugi would get revenge if she could. Of course she would. She, and Shuichi, and Kaede were all going to go to space someday, but Kiibo and Kirumi had stolen that away from them.

Then again... It could still be somebody else. Kaede didn't trust her own work in this trial. For the first time in her life, she had serious doubt in her actual ability as a detective. If nothing else, she'd always had confidence in that area, but now she was losing that along with everything else that she'd lost lately. It was horrifying, in a way, to think that the one thing she'd been certain of was slipping away from her. Tsumugi confessed, but it could have been Kokichi. It could have been Ryoma. Kaede was completely uncertain, a new feeling that made her just want to scream. But she couldn't.

"Hey, Mistress Akamatsu," Miu said as she set a hot cup of tea down in front of her, "Are you feeling sick...? You're shivering."

"A-Ah..." Kaede froze, then grabbed the tea with both hands and stared down into it, "So you noticed that... I'm fine. Physically, anyway."

"Akamatsu is... doubting self?" Gonta asked, leaning over to look her in the eyes despite her attempt to avert them, "No. Believe in self. Sometimes, blackened good at hiding evidence. Confession needed."

"Huh," Kaede said, "You're right, Gokuhara," She wasn't about to bring up her theory that the other blackened could have been someone other than Tsumugi after all. That would just put people on edge. Coming from her, it would have more power than coming from Ryoma in the heat of the moment. She couldn't do that to them; she'd just hold on to her concerns, like Tsumugi wanted. It was probably for the better that Tsumugi took the brunt of their disdain than anybody else it might have been, anyway. It wasn't that Kaede was hoping it was somebody else, because she'd already resigned herself to the strange feeling of not caring that her girlfriend was a killer. She could only hope that if there was another trial, she had more hard evidence to work with.

"There's no reason to doubt the deductions that you were able to make," Rantaro assured her, reaching out to place a hand against her arm, "I know this must have been a hard trial, making you turn on people who you believed in."

"Amami," Kaede said, grabbing the wrist on his hand that he'd placed against her arm, "You... Were an accomplice to a murder, earlier in the Killing Game. Do you think Tojo deserved to die for her part in this?"

"I don't," Rantaro said, "But I don't blame Shirogane for acting the way she did, either. When somebody important to you is killed, you'll act in rash ways."

"Mm," Angie noted, then shoved her chair, Kaede's, and Rantaro's closer together so they couldn't be heard by the rest of their peers, and spoke quietly to boot, "Like how you acted after Maki was executed, right, Amami?"

"How he acted?" Kaede asked, similarly hushed, then turned a concerned look to Rantaro, "I thought all you did was teach yourself how to care for Momota's bugs. That's not rash at all."

"That's what he told you," Angie said, folding her hands under her chin as she leaned against him, "How about this, Akamatsu? Amami's two truths were that he's withheld information of a violent crime, and that he's tried to kill himself. But one of those truths only became a truth once he was here in the Killing Game, and it wasn't the one about a violent crime. He gave up the information about Momota's murder just as soon as the trial turned tides and he couldn't protect Maki anymore..."

"Wait..." Kaede trailed off, staring at Rantaro's face. He was trying not to show much emotion, but his teeth were buried in his lip in concern, "Do you mean to tell me that you..."

"That's why I was avoiding people as much as I could, between the last trial and this one," Rantaro explained, the weakness in his voice keeping him just as inaudible to the rest as the others who were present with him, "It's true. Yonaga saved my life."

"He kind of hates me for it," Angie admitted, still leaning against him, "I mean, I'm sure of it even if you won't say it, Amami. Anyone would wanna die with all the stuff that's been happening here... But I just couldn't let that happen, you know. Good people don't deserve to be killed, or to kill people. And good people certainly don't deserve to do both, like here... So, even worse would be a good person doing both of those things at the same time. It's really lucky I was there, huh?"

"Yeah, that's lucky," Kaede said, then once again fell victim to her habit of letting her observations drive her social skills off the right track, "Yonaga? I thought that you had trouble with physical contact, after what happened with Chabashira that time. How is it you're leaning on Amami like that?"


	110. Daily Life: Day Eight (Let's Explore)

"That's easy, Akamatsu," Angie said, tilting her head as she sat up straight again, "It's my shoulders, and my waist, and my kneecaps."

"What do you mean?" Kaede questioned, furrowing her brow at the list of body parts.

"You wouldn't understand because it's not your type of tragedy," Angie said with a dismissive wave, "Anyway. I'm really not the one to be concerned about right now, you know?"

"Right," Kaede said, turning her attention back to Rantaro.

"You don't need to be concerned about me either," Rantaro said, staring at the table in front of himself, "I had a moment of weakness and regret, but as soon as Yonaga dragged me to the infirmary that night," He trailed his fingers down his own chest, "And... patched me up, I realized what I'd done. I realized I could have lost us our chance at getting Maki back. And when I went back to my room, I found my letter from Monokuma. It's stupid, but it told me... That I needed to stay alive. I don't know what an AE is, but something tells me it's something good that everyone here would love to earn. So I won't be a coward anymore. I'll face my problems from now on... I won't run away, I won't just keep making plans to run away."

"Sometimes it's safer to run," Kaede said.

"Sometimes," Rantaro agreed, "But I've been doing that my whole life. Running in place. And even here, I failed to protect Maki. I guess for a minute there I thought... If I can't protect Maki, how could I protect the people I want to protect in the outside world, once I'm an adult and I've graduated? So I felt kind of hopeless. But if that's the kind of guilt I felt back then, Akamatsu. I'd be more worried about Shirogane than about me right now. At least the only person I directly hurt was myself."

"Tsumugi will be okay," Kaede said, "She's really tough."

"I believe that," Angie said, "I think, Kaede. You and Shirogane could probably survive a whole 'nother Killing Game, after this one, if you had to. Hopefully she wouldn't kill someone that time."

"Ah..." Kaede froze, "You're right. We don't know why Hoshi's still in this one after surviving two before. I guess we need to think about that possibility."

"I didn't mean it like that!" Angie protested, her volume returning to normal, "Anyway, we really don't need to think about that. That's a really scary possibility."

"What's a scary possibility?" Kokichi asked, having heard. He was barely eating his food, but at least he was here.

"We really don't need to think about it," Kaede said, shaking her head, "It's scary, but it's a crossing that bridge when we get to it sort of situation."

"I understand," Kokichi said.

"Hey everyone!" Monokuma suddenly spoke out, landing in the middle of the table as it fell from... Somewhere, "Looks like you're all getting cozy together again, huh? Looking to each other for comfort? Except for Shirogane, of course. That dirty murderer who killed a poor cosplayer who was so jaded and cynical, it's hard to believe she could be naively led to unwitting murder... Then again, that's the power of politics, ain't it? Upupu!"

"Did you just come here to taunt us!?" Miu snapped at the bear.

"Of course not," Monokuma said, "I come bearing gifts in the form of words... About gifts! Several new Ultimate Labs are now available. In the courtyard, the Ultimate Artist's Lab. Of course, it's sealed off, but I guess if you're determined enough you could get inside. Why would you want to, though? Ah, there's also the Ultimate Survivor's Lab up on the fifth floor. The Ultimate Anthropologist's lab is up there too! Also, I'm afraid I've had another technical difficulty with the Flashback Lights. I dropped them all over the school, and they all have different things too! Upupu, I know where I lost them though... One is in a sealed lab, one's in the exit tunnel, and one is on the roof! There's no way to get to the roof. So, basically, it's two flashback lights. Maybe there's some more I forgot about too... Bye-bye!"

And it was gone again.

Good riddance.

Nonetheless, it did give some strange information, which Tenko pointed out, "In the exit tunnel? That's way too dangerous."

"Mm," Kaede agreed, "Let's disregard that one. Ouma?"

"I'm not breaking into Shinguji's lab again," Kokichi said, "You should know the way in now yourself, Akamatsu. A detective should be able to remember _that_ much," He stood up and pushed his chair back in, but picked up his plate, "I'm sorry. I thought that I should at least try to be around people, but... I can't handle it. I need to be alone. See you," And with that, he left through the outer door of the Dining Hall.

Kaede watched him go, but didn't go after him. Nobody did. After a few moments, Kaede turned back to the others and took a deep breath, "I'll check Shinguji's lab for the flashback light, then. Ouma's right, I should be able to get back in there after he brought me there before."

"The Exit Tunnel one's a lost cause," Tenko said, "I'm going to... Check out my lab, I think."

"I'll take a look at mine, too," Ryoma said, "I'm really interested to find out what it'll actually be, given that my talent is so strange. Well, I must have had some other talent in the first Killing Game. Maybe my lab will reflect _that_."

"That is interesting," Kaede noted, then stood up, "Well, that's the new information. Obviously, anyone without a goal can do whatever they want to."

"Kaede," Angie got her attention, "How about I go with you, with a flashlight? Since last time you broke into Shinguji's lab, you hit your head, right? I'll help you!"

"Oh, thanks, Yonaga," Kaede said with a nod.

"I told you to call me Angie so the person I like will get jealous!" Angie protested.

"I don't think that'd actually work, Angie," Kaede said with a bit of a laugh, "I'll meet you upstairs?"

"No," Angie said, "I'll walk with you, I already have a flashlight on me. Just in case of situations like this."

"Oh, well, okay," Kaede said, chuckling a bit, "You're prepared for anything, aren't you?"

"I try very hard to be," Angie said, "Well, not really. But carrying a flashlight is a generally smart thing to do! Honestly, I don't know why everybody doesn't carry a flashlight with them all the time."

"That's actually a good point," Kaede said, "A flashlight would have been useful in several past situations."

"Yeah it would have, you dummy," Angie said, then grabbed Kaede by the wrist to pull her out of the door and toward the stairs. Kaede followed along with her without any hesitation, and they approached the doors for Korekiyo's closed-off lab. Angie let go of Kaede's wrist, so she went out around to the side and found the floorboard that Kokichi had shown her before.

"So this is it, huh?" Angie asked, crouching down as Kaede lifted up the board, "There's a crawlspace under the floor?"

"Yeah," Kaede said, "There seems to be one on every floor, actually. Ouma said that if we really look, we should be able to find ways into the crawlspace anywhere."

"That makes sense," Angie said, then dropped down into the space that Kaede had revealed.


	111. Daily Life: Day Eight (Revisiting The Lab)

Angie, with her flashlight, lit up the crawlspace. Kaede came down behind her, then noted that the floorboard for Korekiyo's lab was still off, so there was that light filtering down from above to reveal where their destination was. Angie went there, using her very smart flashlight to avoid running face-first into a post or anything like that. Though, Kaede thought for sure she'd been unable to find one when she checked the warehouse for herself. She climbed out first, then Kaede climbed after her. There, sitting in the middle of the room, was what looked like a cross between a flashlight just like the one Angie held, and a sci-fi raygun. Angie put her actual flashlight away in the backpack she'd grabbed from the warehouse a while back, then approached what was clearly a flashback light and picked it up.

"So that's what they look like, when they're not in the form of a screen," Kaede noted, leaning over Angie's shoulder to look at it.

"Yeah!" Angie agreed, turning it over in her hands, "It's kind of a cool design, I think. Ah, Kaede? Do you think we should blast ourselves with this thing first, just to make sure we wanna return its topic of memories to the others? I can only assume it's reusable... If not, we can tell Monokuma it was a mistake that we used it up, and it'll give us a new one, right?"

"I guess you're right," Kaede said, "It could be something that's bad to remember, so we should check it out first... It's important that I know everything I can about our situation, given my talent. And you've got the emotional fortitude to handle whatever sort of bad memory might get thrown at you."

"Mmhm," Angie said with a nod, then turned the flashback light to face herself, and Kaede by that extension, and pulled the trigger on the bottom of it.

Kaede's world blurred around her. It seemed like this was a more concentrated form than the ones Monokuma had shown them before, and she felt herself a bit disoriented as the memories came back to her. The topic this time around was, again, more about the nature of the Annual Killing Game. It was a memory which told her how the Killing Games began. A memory which fit right in to everything else Kaede knew.

The Annual Killing game was, by no means, a recent phenomenon. They'd been happening for as long as Kaede lived, though she was still missing the piece of her memory which would tell her the purpose of a game like this. They'd started a long time ago, with a group called Ultimate Despair. An entire class of Ultimate Talents, attending a school intended to cultivate those talents, had been imprisoned inside and made to play the Killing Game. Somehow, those games had stretched forward through until this very one. Kaede wondered how these could just keep happening. Wouldn't Future Foundation have put a stop to them, if Despair was apparently their biggest enemy? What about the government, or the police?

"Kaede?" Angie started, "Why would we have agreed to become Ultimates, knowing that Killing Games are performed on Ultimates every year?"

Kaede froze, then looked to her and shrugged before she spoke, "Angie, you already know the answer to that question. Chances are, something we're missing from our memories is that we agreed to join the Ultimate Initiative because we _didn't_ value our own lives. We already know that much is true about our pasts. Maybe the reason our memories got scrambled is because the game would be more boring if we remembered signing up for it. It's... Assisted suicide, isn't it?"

"That's depressing," Angie said, "But I guess it makes sense. We could have all hit a rock bottom before... Most of us, anyway. But what about Idabashi, Chabashira? Idabashi experienced tragedy in a different way from the rest of us, and as an enemy of Despair, he wouldn't do that. And Chabashira told me that all of her tragedy was pretty far in her past, and that she's okay with it now."

"Idabashi could have intended to investigate Ultimate Despair from the inside?" Kaede wondered, "Though, I can't remember ever hearing about Ultimate Despair except for their hand in the first Killing Games. Maybe that organization isn't even in charge of them anymore. As for Chabashira, I guess you're right. Still... I can't imagine any other reason to become an Ultimate, knowing that this could be the fate of one."

"Perhaps," Angie offered, "Perhaps it was never something definite. Like, becoming an Ultimate would give us a chance that we didn't have, even at the risk of being put into a Killing Game?"

"Yeah," Kaede agreed.

"What I'm more curious about," Angie said, wandering back over to the hole in the lab's floor, "Is Hoshi, you know? His medical records sounded kind of tragic to me, but if he was from two rounds of selection before us, he shouldn't have been considered a Tragic Ultimate. He should have been somebody selected for his value alone, picked from the top of whatever talent he originally had, without any PR concerns or anything. There's obviously still a lot we need to remember, huh?"

Kaede nodded, then climbed back down into the crawlspace, "Angie, I think you should hold on to that flashback light. It's not something the others need to know right away, like you said it might be. I think we should wait until we have more information to make sense of the fact that we apparently knew all along, that Ultimates were prone to becoming victims of Killing Games."

"Oh, I definitely agree," Angie said, swapping the flashback light for her normal flashlight in her bag before she also dropped into the crawlspace, "It really is just depressing to think about. I guess it's right what they say, sometimes. Ignorance really can be bliss, especially in this kind of place," She pointed the light around as she and Kaede worked toward the exit, "So, are you going to go back to Shirogane once we're done here? I'm a pretty good liar sometimes, so I could tell people we didn't find anything."

"Not quite yet," Kaede said, hoisting herself back out into the hallway, "I thought I'd go see the new labs on the fifth floor first. Do you want to come with me?"

"Not particularly," Angie said, already wandering back toward the stairs to the first floor as soon as she was out of the crawlspace, "I don't super need to see those things, or anything. Go on ahead!"


	112. Daily Life: Day Eight (Tenko's Lab)

Kaede went upstairs. She passed the general normalcy of the second floor, the ethereal beauty of the third, and the professionalism of the fourth. The fifth floor, however, had an atmosphere that she never could have expected. It didn't seem especially old or decrepit, but in spite of that fact, it left her with an oppressive feeling of dread that went all the way down inside her spine. It was vast; Much bigger than the other floors had felt. The ceilings were twice as high, and the hallways twice as wide. Even the floorboards seemed double the size they were on the other floors. It made Kaede feel like a mouse lost in a maze, even as the floor was self-explanatory.

One long, huge hallway. Directly across from each other, in the middle of the corridor, were doors. One was very simple and had a question mark icon on it, while the other had no design to it, but seemed to be two slabs of heavy stone that could slide apart. Kaede could tell pretty easily which was which. She decided to check out Tenko's first, because she didn't really need to psych herself up to talk to Tenko. Unlike Ryoma, who'd been behaving so strange lately, and who Kaede had some tough questions for.

Kaede pulled on the doors for Tenko's lab, then focused all her strength on one half and managed to get it open. Heavy door. She squeezed in between the two halves of it as soon as she'd moved the one just enough to get in, then turned to politely close it behind herself.

"Don't worry about that, Akamatsu! I'll get it," Tenko called out, and Kaede whirled around to see her. Tenko shut the door with ease, then looked to her, "You know, if you'd knocked, I could have just let you in. These are some hefty doors."

"I didn't know if you'd hear me knocking on... The stone," Kaede said.

"Oh, good point," Tenko noted, then gestured to the wall, "The wall next to it, then. I should be able to hear that much if I'm in here."

"So," Kaede noted, looking around, "It kind of looks like a museum in here..."

"It does!" Tenko exclaimed with a grin, "It's full of replicas of the stuff I discovered. I already appraised it all and figured out that there's only one genuine artifact in this room... Oh, there's also an obstacle course!" Tenko said, pointing toward the ceiling. There was indeed an obstacle course set up, separated from the museum portion by a net, "It's perfect for me. I can keep myself in top shape, both physically and academically. You know, even as shitty as this place turned out to be, these labs... Are super perfect. It's kinda like whoever put us here actually knew us as people, but... We didn't even know each other before we came here, there's no way that we all knew and opened up to the same person. Or even to different people in the same organization."

"Yeah, it is weird," Kaede said, "Maybe that's something we'll remember eventually."

"Speaking of which," Tenko turned to her, raising her eyebrows, "Did you find anything in Shinguji's sealed lab, or what?"

"No, nothing," Kaede lied, "I guess the light's in Saihara's lab. Or... It could be in Tojo's. That's the only one that's still unavailable to us now, isn't it?"

"You're right," Tenko noted, "That's kind of weird, actually. I mean... Does Monokuma think the game's almost over, giving us so many labs all at once? Somehow, I feel like Killing Games are supposed to keep giving rewards every time a trial happens. Does that mean that bear's only anticipating one more murder? As much as it wish that were true... Maybe it expects the next murder to have a higher death toll. Or, it thought that you and I really would die underground..."

"It's probably best not to think too hard about all of this," Kaede said, sighing, "We got trapped underground just this morning, but somehow it feels like it was such a long time ago... Is that just me?"

"No, I don't think it has anything to do with your time thing," Tenko said, "It really does feel like forever ago. So much has happened since then, already... The day is almost over, though. And if there's nothing else, at least we know that tomorrow can't be any worse than today was. Saihara can't die again. Neither can Tojo or Idabashi. And you and I won't get trapped underground. And your girlfriend won't confess to murder."

"You're the only one who actually knows about that, you know," Kaede said.

"Mm, the others would have figured it out pretty soon anyway. You weren't quite as obvious as Saihara and Ouma, of course, but still pretty obvious. Yonaga asked me once, if I thought you two were together," Tenko answered, crossing her arms as she leaned back against the wall, "Though, here's something I already figured out. You're not about to break up because of this new information."

"...That's right," Kaede said, glancing away as she rubbed her own arm, "I couldn't tell you why, but I just can't find it in me... To care at all, that she did something bad. So you and everyone else can hate me if you want, I don't understand myself why I'm able to stand by her now. I'd prefer if you didn't, but I'm prepared to handle it."

"I won't hate you," Tenko said, lifting one arm from her chest to point at Kaede instead, "In fact, I kind of admire you? It doesn't take any guts to shun somebody when they've done something wrong. It's a lot braver to be there for them when they need it. And that's the thing. Shirogane's gonna have all that guilt, and all the distrust from everyone else, and she's imprisoned inside another prison. Double trapped. Not to mention, she had to be in this Killing Game to begin with. I think that's punishment enough for what she did, without you giving up on her too. Somehow, I kind of feel like... something we could have forgotten about the outside world... Maybe out there, killing is commonplace."

"What do you mean?" Kaede asked, "There's no way that's the case. The man who killed my parents was arrested-"

"I never said legal. I just said commonplace. Maybe we live in a world where murder trials happen more often than trials for petty theft, or shoplifting, and we forgot about that so the Killing Game would be a bigger threat?" Tenko said, "Well, it's just a theory, but the more time I spend in this Killing Game, the more I start to worry about the way I feel toward it. I should be more scared, all the time, not just when I'm trapped underground thinking I'm about to die. I should be more distraught at all these deaths. Since I don't... Since nobody is as upset as I think would make sense, I can't stop thinking about how awful the world outside might be, you know?"

"It's awful," Kaede said, "The extent of it? Who knows. Does it matter? When we leave this place, we'll make it less awful for each other."

"Yeah, you're right," Tenko said, then looked Kaede in the eyes, "I just have one real question for you, Akamatsu. The man who killed your parents... What became of him after he was arrested?"

"I..." Kaede racked her mind, but couldn't come up with the memory, "I don't know..."

"Would you have forgotten it, if it was something as mundane as, he had a fair trial and received a prison sentence?" Tenko questioned, "Or do you think, maybe, he was executed as soon as the judge handed his sentence down?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (By the way, now there's a tvtropes page for this fic... If you wanted to add to it or something... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/EveryonesBrandNewAndImprovedKillingGameSemester )


	113. Daily Life: Day Eight (Moment of Despair)

Kaede froze at Tenko's suggestion, her knees tapping together as she trembled at that accusation hurled at the outside world.

Now that Tenko said that... Now that Kaede really tried to think about it... Maybe she was right.

Maybe a trial in the outside world really was just like a trial within the realm of a Killing Game. Kaede opened her mouth, but no words came out.

"They always said, that high school is supposed to prepare you for the real world," Tenko said, "So what if the purpose of this Ultimate Academy is to do just that, and the outside world really is that kind of place for adults? A cesspool of despair where killing is encouraged and punished with utter brutality..."

"That can't be the case," Kaede said, "If it was really that horrible, I think we'd remember it. And if it were a world like that, then there wouldn't be any novelty in picking a round of Tragic Ultimates, right? Everybody would be tragic, so there wouldn't be any reason to pick those sort of people specifically."

"I guess you're right," Tenko said, then waved her hand, "It was just a theory. A really shitty theory, I guess... But it's hard not to think of worst case scenarios, and you're the only person I can actually tell them to. Though, I guess that's good too? You're also the only one who can actually talk sense into me when I start spiraling like that."

"Geeze, Chabashira..." Kaede mumbled, "You had me really scared for a minute there. I almost let myself believe that you were right! But, you've got to be wrong, with the other information that we've already remembered."

"That's true," Tenko agreed, "Sorry if I scared you. Uh, you should probably go talk to somebody else, then. Obviously I'm not really in the right state of mind to talk to anybody without going off on some awful tangent."

"Are you sure?" Kaede asked, "I can stay if you want."

"No, I'll be okay," Tenko assured her, "Really, I'm okay. Or I will be. And that's kind of the problem, but it'll go away, it'll fade."

"Okay," Kaede said, then gave a half-hearted wave to Tenko as she left, the door having been opened for her. As soon as Kaede was on the other side, the door shut behind her again. Kaede glanced back, then looked straight ahead and took a deep breath. Visiting Tenko had been more stressful than she expected, so maybe Ryoma would be less stressful than she expected. Or, she'd just get way too stressed altogether. Only one way to find out, though. She walked across the too-wide hallway and knocked on the door.

"Oh, Akamatsu," Ryoma said when he opened the door and saw her there, "I've been turning away anyone interested in my lab, and I'm afraid you're no exception."

"Everyone already knows you're the Ultimate Survivor, Hoshi," Kaede said, "Why would you be guarding your lab's contents?"

"Because there's information in here that's even more incriminating against me, in the eyes of whoever the Mastermind is, than the mere fact that I'm the Ultimate Survivor," Ryoma explained, "And, now that I am aware of this fact, I'd rather not allow anyone to see this evidence. If the Mastermind decided to let me live in spite of my talent, this would change their mind."

"Okay, I guess," Kaede said, "But I had an important question for you. During the trial, you and Tsumugi started using first names, and you said something about fake strangers. What was all that about?"

"I should have known you wouldn't let that slip your mind," Ryoma groaned, leaning against the doorframe, "Well, I appreciate you asking me in a nonthreatening way, but I don't have an answer for you. Not one that you'd believe, coming from the man who wanted to condemn a friend of yours based on a hunch. Tsumugi can explain everything, and I'm sure she will if you just ask her to."

"What could possibly be more incriminating in the eyes of the Mastermind than the fact that you're the Ultimate Survivor?" Kaede asked.

"It's better if you don't know. I still don't think it's you, but it's possible. I can't trust you," Ryoma said, then shut the door in her face. Kaede jumped backward in surprise, then turned to look back down the hallway in the direction she'd originally come. She took a deep breath, then walked back to the stairs. Ryoma wanted her to ask Tsumugi, then she'd do just that. She went all the way back to the first floor, then out to the courtyard and to Tsumugi's lab again. Aside from a brief departure in the middle of dinner to bring her a plate while it was still warm, Kaede had kind of gone off on an adventure by herself.

She let herself into the lab, then found Tsumugi fiddling with something in a corner, "Tsumugi? What are you up to?"

"Ah," Tsumugi turned and smiled at her, "I was thinking, maybe I could do something to make it so only you and Ryoma could get in, since I'm kind of a sitting duck sleeping out here with anyone able to get inside... But, I guess that's part of my punishment, to be an easy target. Anyway, how'd it go, checking out the new labs?"

"Well first, Yonaga and I went to Shinguji's lab to look for a flashback light," Kaede said, then decided to admit her secret, "We found something, but we also decided that it was better if we left that something where it was. It wasn't a very good memory."

"It was probably smart to keep that to yourselves, then," Tsumugi said, "We really don't need more bad news right now."

"Chabashira's lab was interesting," Kaede continued, "And Hoshi wouldn't let me into his. Also, I was asking him about what was happening between you two at the trial... He told me that I'd be better off asking you instead. So here I am. Asking you."

"Okay," Tsumugi said, "I'll tell you the truth, then. You deserve to know it, now that we figured it out ourselves. Ryoma Hoshi... Is my stepbrother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to QwertysHuman for not only consistently theorizing that Tsumugi's stepbrother was in the Killing Game, but predicting that it's Ryoma


	114. Daily Life: Day Eight (Conversations with A Murderer)

"Your stepbrother?" Kaede asked, "You mean, the sickly stepbrother who left you behind...?"

"Yeah," Tsumugi said, "That stepbrother. It wasn't a flashback light or anything, we just talked enough that the memories we both had worked their way out of the fog. A flashback light isn't always necessary... And we figured out that he never actually betrayed me. When I thought he abandoned me? It was, well. When he was taken to participate in his first Killing Game."

"So what he was doing, going after Ouma in the trial..." Kaede trailed off.

"Yes," Tsumugi answered, "Even from the beginning, before I confessed, he figured out it was me who probably killed Tojo. He was trying to protect me from execution, then to protect me from the punishment I'm serving out now. He told me that, in his first two Killing Games... he was motivated to survive, because he knew that I was waiting on the outside to take him to space someday."

"But not in this game," Kaede said, "Because he had his memories of you removed..."

"That's right," Tsumugi said, "Like we said in the trial. Strangers can be faked. For all we know... None of us are really strangers at all. And the ways that we feel about each other are because some small, hidden part of us still remembers how we felt in the outside world, if we knew each other before," Tsumugi explained, "And that's how... Saihara and Ouma became so close, so quickly. Us too Kaede. I think that we do have memories of each other, that just need to be found."

"And you're saying the memories were suppressed because if we did remember each other for real, we wouldn't have participated in a Killing Game?" Kaede asked.

"Maybe," Tsumugi said, staring up at the stars above, "I mean, I could be wrong. Maybe it's just me and Ryoma after all, and I just want to make sense of all of this. It's kind of weird to fall in love with someone in a week, you know? But as far as I can tell, people just keep doing exactly that."

"It might just be the adrenaline," Kaede said, "In a Killing Game, we're desperate for something to hold onto and to trust. And anyone who wants to fall in love, wants to do it sometime before they die, right?"

"If what you want is something to trust," Tsumugi said, wrapping her arms around herself and looking away, "Why me?"

"I couldn't tell you that," Kaede said, "I really shouldn't trust you now, but... There's still secrets of yours that I get to have. And so you get secrets of mine, even if you did make a terrible mistake. That's just one thing you've done, and I know you've done great things too. And since you were lucky enough to survive the trial, you'll do great things in the future. That's the least you can do, for Tojo's sake."

"She didn't deserve to die," Tsumugi said, sitting down on the ground and leaning back against the sturdy walls, "I didn't have a good reason to kill her, looking back. I should have just let it be. I should have trusted you when you promised me you wouldn't kill someone for my sake... But hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? And I've never been," She adjusted her glasses, "That good at seeing the present or the future. I keep making these assumptions which only ruin me."

"Even if it wasn't for me," Kaede said, "She was an accomplice in Saihara's murder. I don't think she deserved to die for that. But she did deserve a punishment, though the one you gave her was too harsh. It still feels a little bit like justice, and I think that's how I can handle an awful truth like that."

"Kaede," Tsumugi said, "What sort of a mindset is that, for a detective?"

"Hah..." Kaede trailed off, looking down at her own hands, "I don't know. Chabashira once told me, when I said I'd overlook it if it turned out Ouma had killed someone before, that I put faith in people above the law, and that thinking that way could be a boon. That I wouldn't condemn someone without looking at every angle, but now... It feels more like a curse. I look at you and I just see Tsumugi, not a murderer, sure... But I also don't see a murderer only, when I think about Idabashi or Tojo. This entire case didn't come about because of some motive, it came about because Idabashi never got the chance to understand. Until moments before his death, he honestly thought he was doing the right thing for us, putting us out of our misery. It wasn't his fault. It was Future Foundation's."

"Oh, I understand," Tsumugi said, then nodded, "Future Foundation are the ones who taught Idabashi about Despair Fever... They probably taught him to see despair in everything, so he'd be motivated to change it? And never really let him learn to socialize like a normal person," Tsumugi froze and stared at the far wall, "Yonaga was right, you know. He could have changed, and been better. If one of us had to die, it shouldn't have been him."

"We can't change the past," Kaede said, "But when we get out of here... We were all going to protect and support each other, right? That shouldn't change for our dead friends either. We can find Future Foundation and make them face the reality of what they did to him. Idabashi was a pure ray of light, really. Future Foundation never gave him the chance to shine through, though."

"That's right," Tsumugi agreed, "We'll make them pay, for letting this happen. Would anyone have even ended up dead, if Idabashi didn't think we'd come down with Despair Fever?"

"It's a Killing Game, Tsumugi," Kaede said, sitting down next to her and leaning her head on her shoulder, "Something would have happened eventually."

"Where'd your optimism go?" Tsumugi prodded.

"It died with Shuichi Saihara."


	115. Daily Life: Day Eight (POV Switch)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise!

Angie Yonaga was frustrated.

Angie Yonaga was also the type of girl who set forth an image of herself, which, basically, prohibited her from ever showing that frustration. So it was that she resorted to screaming into pillows in her free time, just so that she could keep up the image of somebody who was happy all the time, who just went with the flow. Obviously, nobody could really be that way all of the time, but she felt like it was better if that was the only side of her she showed.

Truth be told, Angie was very upset. She was upset that Shuichi had died most of all, because it was such a meaningless death. He was killed just because Kiibo thought he could get away with it if it was him, and only because Kiibo was so inept. So Angie was mad at Kiibo. Angie wondered if things could have been different if she hadn't sided with Kokichi in the school presidential campaign, and that made her mad at herself. Tsumugi killed someone for being an accomplice in a murder without even realizing, that made Angie mad at her. Kiibo and Tsumugi both could have lived if there had been a tie, and that made her mad at her classmates.

Atua urged her to let her anger go, but that was easier said than done.

One of the other ways that Angie liked to try clearing her head was just to walk around outside. That was simple enough, and she enjoyed it. and the fresh-ish air made her worries seem small. She liked the dim light of evening here. If it weren't a Killing Game, she thought, she'd love to just spend the rest of her life in this place. It was safe, and nobody looked to her for all the answers. She could be happy here with friends, and music, and Atua's guidance wouldn't need to tell anyone if they were going to go bankrupt in the coming year or anything like that.

Why couldn't it have just been a peaceful, happy place?

Angie thought back to just after Korekiyo had killed Himiko, and himself. He avoided starting the Killing Game, and after that, everything seemed okay for a while, Angie thought. There was happiness to be found, before the second murder. Why did Maki have to receive that update?

Angie didn't blame Maki, though. And she didn't blame Rantaro. They tried their best, even if that was what truly kicked off the Killing Game. It was unfortunate. If Monokuma's stance had only remained that they should be friends...

Though, Angie thought, maybe that stance was meant to be a motive after all. If Monokuma somehow knew that Maki was going to receive that update, encouraging friendships would make the idea that 'anyone who ever said they'd protect Maki' being killed would be a particularly awful thing. Nonetheless, had there not been a robot with that kind of weakness... At least four people wouldn't have died.

Angie was kind of mad at Maki, actually. But she knew that was worthless, because it wasn't like Maki could help it. It was in her programming. Still, thinking about all the things she was angry about helped Angie to sort out her feelings and think more clearly about the situation, and as much as she kept realizing things she was angry about, the overall frustration was gradually subsiding. And it was good that it was, because she spotted Miu coming out of the Dining Hall's exterior door. She approached her, "Hey, Iruma. What's up?" She glanced over her, then noticed what was in her hands, "Is that a Flashback Light...?"

"Huh? Yeah, it is," Miu said, holding it up, "How did you know?"

"Uh," Right, Kaede was the only person who knew that Angie had already seen a Flashback light, "Well, it looks like a flashlight, but sci-fi and stuff. I didn't even need Atua to tell me that was a good guess!"

"Oh, that makes sense," Miu said, then looked down at her light, "Monokuma gave this to me as soon as I was alone. It said that if I used it, I'd know which of my motives were truths and which were lies, but I... I'm not sure that I want those memories."

"A flashback light has to have _some_ effect on everybody who sees it, right?" Angie prodded, "So maybe, this'll reveal secrets about ourselves that everyone's forgotten about, not just you."

"Ah, you're right..." Miu trailed off, "Well, this probably makes me sound kind of awful, but I think I'd be more okay learning the truth if other people had things to remember too, to be honest with you."

"I'll test it on myself," Angie said, holding her hands out, "And if it has an effect on me, then I'll hold onto it, and show it to everyone when I think the time is right?"

"That's a good idea," Miu said, dropping the flashback light into Angie's waiting palms, "Ah, but if you test it on yourself, will you be able to use it again? Or will it be lost? Just cause I'm scared of the memories doesn't mean I want to lose my chance at remembering forever!"

"I'm pretty sure the Flashback Lights are reusable," Angie said, "But I guess we can ask Monokuma, to make sure?"

"Did somebody say my name?" Monokuma's voice came from behind Angie, and she turned around to it as it continued, "Well, to answer your question, they're totally reusable until everybody left alive has experienced them, at which point they'll no longer light up or provide any memories, obviously."

"That's great. Thanks, Monokuma," Angie said.

"Now go away," Miu said, and the bear obliged with only a small pout as it made itself scarce. She turned back to Angie, "In that case, I like your plan. But are you sure you'll be okay, remembering whatever it gives you?"

"I'm made of tough stuff!" Angie said, flexing an arm, "With Atua on my side, I can face any emotional distress head-on, probably."

"Probably?" Miu questioned, furrowing her brow, "Mistress Yonaga, if using that Flashback Light would bring you harm, I urge you not to!"

"No, no," Angie said, waving her hands in front of herself, "I'm pretty sure I couldn't get any new memories worse than the memories I've already got, so! That's nothing to worry about, I promise."

"If you're sure," Miu said, then watched as Angie carefully put the light into her backpack, opening it just enough to fit the light in before slinging it back over her shoulders.

"I'm certain," Angie said, flashing a thumbs-up, "You can count on me, Iruma! You've let us all count on you for so long, so..."

"Right," Miu nodded, offering a soft smile, "Thank you, Yonaga. You've really lifted a weight off my shoulders. I know I can trust you, to show that to me when I'm ready to see it... Well, to remember it, I guess."

"Mhm," Angie said, "I have good judgment for these types of things, thanks to Atua! But, I should probably get some sleep. You should too!"

"You're right," Miu said, "Walk me back?"

"Of course," Angie agreed, falling into step with Miu in the direction of the dorm buildings, "So, Iruma. I've got a question for you. I think you're probably... The best person to ask this. I can't explain why, but... Do you think that even the worst people can become good?"


	116. Daily Life: Day Eight (Both Broken)

"You're right, I don't know why I'd be the best person for you to ask that of," Miu said, mumbling, "I.. I don't know, actually. Mostly because I don't know what I'd consider to be the worst people. Is this about Shirogane?"

"Shirogane and Idabashi," Angie said, "If there was a tie, they might have both survived... And then they'd be able to become better, wouldn't they? But I don't know if Shirogane can, now, with survivor's guilt added onto her problems."

"Don't tell me you're feeling bad for her," Miu said, "She caught a lucky break, getting out of a trial without an execution..."

"She sure did," Angie said, "And I wanted to help her, really, but I wanted to help Idabashi too, and... I'm kinda scared to be alone with her, to tell you the truth."

"That's understandable," Miu said, "I mean, you're a pianist. You're probably not used to being around dangerous people at all. Even I'm trying not to be too freaked out by this, but... I don't think I would consider myself to be in the service of Shirogane anymore."

"If Idabashi was also alive, then it'd be easier," Angie noted, "Because then I could be talking to both of them, we could all be... But with three of our friends dead, I just don't feel up to trying, with just her. We can just leave her in her lab and forget about her, which sounds really bad if I say it out loud but," She adjusted her backpack straps, "I'm really frustrated. None of this should have happened."

"I know," Miu said, 'I understand how you feel. You don't have to forgive somebody who's done something bad, even if other people do."

"I don't think anyone's forgiving Shirogane," Angie said, "Not even Akamatsu."

"She's not?" Miu questioned.

"Forgiveness is different from what she's doing," Angie said, "She's not forgiving her, she's looking past her wrongdoings. That's totally different. I couldn't do that either, now, but it's definitely not the same."

"Looking past it..." Miu trailed off, "Well, I guess that probably helps her mental health, at least a little. It hurts to dislike somebody, I think. I would never want to hate somebody, or hold a grudge, but it's getting difficult not to, even though I know it would just make me feel worse. Even Idabashi, even though he made the decision to kill somebody on his own, I feel less inclined to hold a grudge toward him than I do towards Shirogane. Because he's dead and she's not."

"Holding a grudge is bad to do," Angie said, pouting, "But I kinda feel like I'm getting a grudge toward everybody! I wanted there to be a tie, so I'm getting mad at everybody for not voting for one. And I know that's dumb!"

"Don't worry too much about it, Yonaga," Miu said, stopping in front of the door for her own dorm room, "Just don't think too hard, and eventually this will all be over."

"I know," Angie agreed, then Miu went into her room. Angie sighed as she turned back around to go to her room, only to see that Rantaro was up on the balcony for the second level of dorms, looking down at her. She stared at him for a moment, then spoke up, "Hey, Amami."

"Yonaga," Rantaro said back to her, hanging his arms over the railing, "You know, you don't have to pretend all the time. If you've really got that grudge against everyone here, then you don't have to act like we're all your best friends."

"Come on," Angie complained, rolling her feet back to stand on her heels, "You know I didn't mean it that way. I still love everyone here, and you all give me lots of hope for the future. I just wish there were still more of you."

"So are you mad at me?" Rantaro asked, moving down the stairs now to speak with her on her level, "For almost making there be one less?"

"Yeah," Angie said, "Probably the same amount you're mad at me for stopping you."

"Well, that's funny," Rantaro said, "Because I'm not really mad about that."

"You aren't?" Angie asked, holding her arms in close to herself, "Even with what's happened since then?"

"Even with that," Rantaro said, "Didn't you hear me? I decided to stop running away, to stay alive and find solutions. I wouldn't be here if you weren't there at the time."

"Yeah, that's true," Angie said, then suddenly reached out and unbuttoned two of the buttons midway down Rantaro's shirt, frowning, "I still can't believe you'd do something like this to yourself. Of all methods, you had to pick the bizarrely painful one?"

"Yonaga-" Rantaro started to protest, but she just reached out and brushed her fingers against the scars. He flinched; It wasn't healed enough yet for that not to hurt.

"You must have had a lot of emotional pain built up over the years, to be able to even do this," Angie noted, "You were seriously just gonna burn right through yourself, huh? That's kind of really terrifying. There plenty of less painful ways."

"I guess in that moment, I thought that I deserved to die a slow, painful death," Rantaro admitted, drawing away from Angie to rebutton his shirt, "If I'd just poisoned myself or something, you never would have known to stop me."

"Yeah, so you didn't think it through," Angie said, "Which is good, when it comes down to it."

"But, you know, Yonaga," Rantaro said, "You can't understand how I'd do something like that to myself, sure, but I can't understand the things that you do to yourself either."

"What do you mean?" Angie asked, "I don't do anything. Why would you think that?"

"I figured it out," Rantaro said, "When you were helping me, you were way too good at first aid, especially for burns. So you'd been burned before, and I can't imagine anyone else would have done that to you, if you were the oracle to your entire island."

"No, I don't..." Angie trailed off, staring right through him, "Someone can be good at first aid without having a reason, Amami."

"Or you've got chemical burns," Rantaro said, "On your knees, your waist, or your shoulders?"

"W-What? No, it's nothing like that," Angie said, taking a few steps backward, but she felt her rather-lumpy backpack come up against a pillar, "Who... Who told you that? You wouldn't have come up with that on your own. Was it Kaede?"

"Chabashira, actually," Rantaro said, "She told me the theory a while ago actually. Why don't I take a guess at your expired motives? The lie is that you've never had a crisis of faith. So it's true that you've stolen from your church's offertory, and it's true that you never learned to play chopsticks, right? Don't you think, with what I've let you know about me, I deserve to know these things about you?"

Angie just took a few breaths, staring at him with wide eyes before she spoke again, "It's not... No, Amami, it's not like that, really, I mean, it's not important. Even if you were right, it doesn't matter..."

"Why don't we take things one item at a time?" Rantaro offered, holding out a hand toward her, "Though, we may be better off talking somewhere other than the lobby of the dorms, you know."

Angie hesitated, still just looking at him, then reached out and took his hand.


	117. Daily Life: Day Eight (Angie's Past)

Rantaro led Angie up the stairs, then to his dorm room. She was scared to have to answer his questions, but not afraid to be alone with him, even in his room. She was alone with plenty of people with nothing happening, after all. And she'd even spent a night in Tenko's room, when she was afraid that Tenko would end up as a target.

She was also scared that Kaede could become a target, when those motives came out... And they both nearly had, right? It was easy to assume that when those two were trapped underground, it was an intentional action by somebody who wanted them out of the picture. Angie wasn't doubting that; She still believed it had been Kiibo's instruction, carried out by Kirumi. Even as she felt angry at Tsumugi for committing a murder, she knew that she wouldn't have done something which directly endangered Kaede.

Angie was a good judge of character, at least, she liked to think that she was. Especially with Atua's help. She saw Tsumugi as somebody who was lost, who didn't know north from south on her moral compass at the worst of times, but she could always see the east and the west. The east was Kaede, and anyone else Tsumugi loved, and the west was hurting somebody who she cared about. Tsumugi was a murderer, the first one here who couldn't garner real sympathy from Angie, but she wouldn't hurt Kaede.

Angie couldn't stay wandering around her inner thoughts for long, though, because Rantaro sat her down on the couch, sat next to her, then clasped his hands in his lap and looked to her, "One thing at a time, okay, Angie?"

"Yeah," Angie said.

"Let's start with just one piece of it," He said, "Why did you steal from the offertory? Shouldn't you have been able to get anything you ever wanted, as the oracle?"

"I had a card," Angie explained, pressing her hands between her knees. Feeling, through her socks, her knee's scars pressed against the backs of her knuckles, "A credit card, we were modern enough for that, you know? We had those, and phones, and computers and everything. It was tied to the island's treasury fund, which was more than we could ever really use cause of some good deals the elders made back when the rest of the world communicated with us..."

"But," She continued, "I needed to carry some cash. In case of an emergency. Or in case I needed to buy something that I didn't want the elders to know I was buying. As far as the elders were concerned, I existed to do two things. Play the church's organ, and deliver Atua's messages to the people. All of my clothes were even really plain," She noted, "But, you could tell that much."

"I understand," Rantaro said, giving her a warm and inviting smile, "So, Angie, what sort of things did you end up buying?"

"Not... That many things," Angie said, looking at the far wall, "I never took a lot, I didn't want to misappropriate funds or anything. So I didn't buy anything frivolous."

"Yes, but what?" Rantaro prompted, "Bleach?"

Angie hesitated, but gave her response, "Yes. That was one of the things. Cleaning products were dealt with by people who worked with the church, so I would have no business buying such a thing myself. I had to, though. I had to become clean. Atua told me so..."

"And, Angie, is the reason you needed to clean your knees, and your shoulders, and your waist, the same as the reason you had a crisis of faith?" Rantaro asked.

"Yes," Angie answered.

"And is it also the same reason you never learned Chopsticks, because you can't sit on a bench with someone?" He continued.

"Yes," She said again.

"You were worshiped," Rantaro said, "Why couldn't you tell someone, and get him to stop before it escalated enough that you thought you needed to scrub away the skin where he touched you before?"

Angie was surprised by how much of this he was figuring out, but only for a moment. Then, she remembered his own tragedy. Growing up in that house, he probably had to figure these sort of things out about his sisters all the time. Keep them from doing anything like she'd done to herself in retaliation to the horrible feeling. Rantaro lived with victims, and felt a responsibility to protect them.

So, with that in mind, Angie decided she would give him the answer, "Because he was my teacher. The organist before me, and the oracle before me. He said that he still heard Atua's voice, and it was telling him to do it. But Atua was telling me not to let him, to run away, that it was wrong and bad... And I thought, for a little while there, that something had to be wrong, if we heard two different Atuas, with opposite ideas of what was good and bad. Then I realized, he was lying. Atua would never encourage somebody to do something like that."

"Did he say anything else to you?" Rantaro asked, "Anything specific, that might have made you more scared to tell anybody when you were younger?"

Angie hesitated, then reached into her backpack and retrieved the Flashback Light that Miu had given her to test, "I think so. I just need to remember. Close your eyes, Amami."

Rantaro obliged, and Angie turned the light on herself. She was dazed for a moment, then it came back to her. She stood up, pacing the approximately four steps to the wall, then turned back around, hands wrapped tight around her bag's straps with her knuckles showing the grip in their lightening, "He told me that I was a bad pianist, and a bad oracle, because I didn't have all of the spirit of Atua yet. And he needed to give it to me..."

"Did that flashback light tell you that?" Rantaro asked, opening his eyes again to look at her, "Where did you even get that one?"

"It was supposed to be the flashback light which would tell Iruma which of her motives were true and which were lies," Angie explained, "But it didn't just... It told me something else too, Amami."

"And what's that?" Rantaro asked.

"I remember there was a moment, where I thought... That I should run away. I thought about jumping into the ocean and never coming back up, and then a girl grabbed my arm. I can't remember her face, or really what she looked like at all, but I remember what she said to me," Angie muttered, dropping her hands to her sides and staring at the floor, "She said, 'Hey. You're Angie Yonaga, right? If you don't want your life... Why not give it to me?'"


	118. Daily Life: Day Eight (Flashback Light)

"That's..." Rantaro trailed off, then reached out and took the Flashback Light from Angie's hands, "I should use it too, th-"

"No," Angie said, shaking her head, "Whatever it would make you remember is not worth it, I promise. You wouldn't want to know."

"But... I should know if I also saw that person, right?" Rantaro asked, "If she would have said the same thing to me?"

"Not now," Angie said, taking it back and putting it into her bag, "Iruma trusted me to know, when everybody was ready to use this Flashback Light. I don't think Monokuma expected anyone but Iruma to use this one yet... I'll share it with everybody, eventually. When they need to know it. That's not now."

"You can say that," Rantaro said, "But I think that it's something important for us to know."

"I do too. We don 't need it yet, though," Angie said, "We're not close enough to finding the Mastermind, to need this type of information yet, and since it comes with a really bad memory... Why would you want to expose anyone else to that until we absolutely have to?"

"That's a good point," Rantaro admitted, then crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, "I'm sorry you had to be the one to test it... And I'm sorry that I made you tell me what happened to you."

"I'm kind of glad that you did, actually," Angie said, "I've been holding onto that information for a really long time. I never really got to talk to anyone about it, and then you let me, so if nothing else, it took a weight off my shoulders, you know?"

"Ah, I understand," Rantaro said, "I'm glad that you think that, then. I was worried that I put our friendship in jeopardy by pushing you too hard."

"No way," Angie said, "We're close, you and me. But don't get too close to me, okay?" She said, sitting back down on the couch, "You'd just end up regretting it."

"Not if I keep you alive," Rantaro said.

"No," Angie mumbled, shaking her head, "Even if I don't die in this Killing Game, you'd regret caring about me. Amami, just focus on the people you already knew you wanted to protect and don't try to add anybody else, especially not me, especially not anyone in this academy. Even without Despair Fever, there's a lot of despair here. That's how Idabashi fell into True Despair."

"True Despair..." Rantaro trailed off, looking up at the ceiling, "He knew exactly what you meant when you said that, but I can't say I understood."

Angie hesitated, but decided if she already trusted Rantaro with the truth about her past, she could trust him with this too, "I talked to Idabashi, before he ended up suspecting everybody of having Despair Fever. He was telling me that even though he didn't agree with Future Foundation's methods, they were battling against a concept which was hard to break. The concept of True Despair, which was introduced to this world after the first Killing Game, he told me. Though he couldn't remember any other details about the Killing Games, he knew about True Despair. It's the phenomenon when somebody gets so filled up with despair that they lose sight of their own principles, feelings, and morals, stripping their sense of self and their ideals down to the most base level. So when Idabashi fell into True Despair, he became unable to focus on anything but 'the vanquishing of despair', as that was the ideal he'd had most pounded into his head."

"That sounds like something that would have always existed," Rantaro said, "How did it not?"

"Strong despair has always existed," Angie said, "But True Despair could only be introduced to a world... Because for True Despair to stand out, everybody else has to feel some kind of despair, right? That was what Idabashi told me. If Future Foundation could get rid of enough despair, then True Despair couldn't survive anymore..."

"That seems strange," Rantaro said, "But I guess it makes sense. So, do you think Idabashi was able to fall into True Despair because there's despair in this academy?"

"There's a lot of despair in this academy," Angie said, "It can be really bad too. We're all people with reasons to be in despair, all of the time... And sometimes, things at this academy can give us lots of hope, just to make us despair even more when something bad happens," She explained, "And that Flashback Light I just used... It would only give people more despair. Nothing about it gives any hope."

"But... If hope only makes more despair..." Rantaro trailed off.

"I mean," Angie whispered, "Yeah, having hope can mean that your despair is even stronger, but I don't think that's the reason hope exists. If we had no hope... We have to keep believing there's a future somewhere out there for us. We just have to be careful not to hope too hard for the wrong things. But something that brings despair, and no hope at all, is something to keep secret."

"I guess I understand," Rantaro said, "And the owner of the Flashback Light trusted you with that decision, so there's nothing I can do about it, but you know. If something happens that makes me think we need to use that, then I won't hesitate to tell everyone about it."

"That won't be necessary, Amami," Angie said, finally starting to reclaim her usually demeanor as she took a few steps toward him, "Don't you trust my judgment? If you ever feel like the others need to know, chances are I'd already be telling them!"

"I guess you're right," Rantaro said, taking a few deep breaths of his own, "Angie, are you going to be okay?"

"I am," She said, turning to him and offering a bright smile, "But, hey... Since you know the truth, could you maybe help me out with something?"

"Yeah, anything," Rantaro said.

"I think," She said, "I want to learn to play Chopsticks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kaito + Maki + Rantaro interaction from when she had her update disabled now available over in The Lost Chapters


	119. Daily Life: Day Eight (Goodnight)

"You want to... Angie, are you asking for my help to do that?" Rantaro asked.

"Yeah," Angie said, "I mean, if you're willing to. It'll probably be really hard on me... And on you, if I start freaking out, I'll be honest! But I want to get well. I want to get... better, anyway. Even if I can't fix myself, I at least want to be able to look Atua in the eyes, when I die, and tell him that I tried."

"Come on, Angie," Rantaro chuckled, "You won't need to tell him that. He already knows, right? You're trying so hard, you have been for all this time. Any God worth his salt should be proud of you already."

"Thanks, Rantaro," Angie said, then pulled her backpack off and dropped it beside the couch, "Hey... How restless a sleeper are you?"

"Not at all, why?" Rantaro asked.

Angie shrugged, looking down at the floor, "I guess, it's just been that going to sleep next to each other... I wondered why others kept doing it, but I think I'm starting to understand. Taking comfort in another person who you trust, who wouldn't want to be able to do that in this kind of setting? Trusting someone is really hard. So if you can trust someone this much, that's the way to express it, right?""

"But, Angie," Rantaro said, "Wouldn't that just be scary for you, that... I mean, your shoulders at least-"

"But you're not a restless sleeper, right?" Angie asked, "Can't I just... Hold your hand? Isn't that fine? I want to be able to feel close with somebody again, for the first time in years. Can't you understand?"

"I just don't want to hurt you," Rantaro said.

"I know," Angie said, then reached out for his hand, "And that's why I know that you won't. Just don't get too attached to me, okay?"

"What if I want to?" Rantaro asked.

Angie looked away, "I told you, it's a bad idea. You'll just feel more despair. Why would you want to get attached to anybody in this place, after Maki? We don't have to get attached. We don't have to really care, we can just use each other. For now. Who knows, what could happen when the Killing Game is over?"

"That's a good way to look at it," Rantaro said, "Well, not good. It's kind of unhealthy, actually, but I'm okay with it. I think that's fine. Using each other is... Fine for now."

"Fine for now," Angie agreed, then stepped away to open Rantaro's closet. She didn't feel like going back to her own room right now, and scrounged up two pairs of the Academy-provided pajamas. Her own were simple, a white button-up and pants with a very basic lace around the hem. Rantaro's were baby blue and fleece, and she thought they were definitely better than her own, "I'm stealing a pair of these, just so you know. And I took a shower in the morning, cause I woke up a bit before the motive announcement, so I don't need one now."

"I'll take one, then. You can get changed while I'm in there," Rantaro said, and Angie agreed with a nod. He brought his own pair of pajamas with him into the bathroom and shut the door.

Angie waited until she heard the pattern of the shower water change from a regular pit-pat, signifying that he'd actually gotten into the shower, before she got undressed. Before she put the pajamas on, she hesitated and took a good long look at her own skin. She wiped the concealer away from her knees, wishing to herself that she'd been provided with taller socks here because hiding the scars on her knees was always a rough venture. How had Rantaro and Tenko figured out that it was chemical burns? Did it have anything to do with her personality? Was she just that particular brand of self-destructive? She knew that everybody here was self-destructive, so maybe when that much was easy to figure out, the harder thing for an anthropologist to dig down to was exactly how each of them intensified their own misery. It was self-inflicted misery, but not self-inflicted despair.

Angie's burns did not feel good. She knew Rantaro's didn't either. Kokichi's cuts on full display when she helped to bandage him; Bullshit that was all from other people, bullshit he'd cut out his own eye in his sleep. None of it felt good, it all hurt, but at least it was something they could control, in some way. Bleeding out the emotional hurt, like leeches on poison. Except it never really helped. It wasn't despair, though. It was the most twisted form of hope. A hope that something, anything, even something which hurt could help them feel better, even if for just one second. Angie wondered a lot, about twisted hope, since Kiibo spoke to her about True Despair that day.

Hope, she thought, could still make people do awful things to other people. 'For a good cause', they'd say, and that was twisted hope. Hurting people for the greater good wasn't despair. Despair was a black hole from which nothing truly good could come. If that was true, then was hope born out of intense despair doomed to be twisted hope?

That was just too much for Angie Yonaga to think about.

_Put it out of your mind. Become comfortable and relax,_ Atua's presence urged her, and who was she to deny it? Angie put the pajamas on, covering up her mottled scars and covering up her thoughts again. It was not her role to think about things in that much depth, but whose role was it? It had been Kiibo's, right? His role to think about the nature of hope and despair, but he was gone now. His own role had been his downfall.

Angie's role was to be a beam of light and bringer of cheer wherever she could. She was meant to deliver Atua's message. To deliver comfort to everyone around her.

She lay down in Rantaro's bed, but didn't fall asleep. She waited. Rantaro, eventually, returned from his shower. He climbed into the other side, and both of them lying on their backs with one pillow each, another set between them just to be on the safe side, they reached beyond where the pillow ended and linked hands before closing their eyes. This day was over. This awful, horrible day.

Tomorrow was another day.

At least it couldn't be any worse.

The nighttime announcement had played earlier, and there was nothing to disturb this peace.

 

-~-~-~

[MONOKUMA THEATRE]

Wow, what a day!  
Ain't it hard to believe all of this happened in just one day, though?  
Kinda feels like two, or three, or maybe even thirty!  
But it really was just one long, hard day.  
Aren't we all glad it's finished?  
Maybe it'll be a little longer before someone dies next time...  
Or a little sooner?  
Who the fuck knows!

 

~~~~~

[ And this chapter's fanart! It's on a brand new deviantart account so show your fellow fan some love! ^^ ](https://angie-yonaga.deviantart.com/art/Shuichi-Saihara-as-the-Ultimate-Artist-730292452)


	120. Daily Life: Day Nine (A New Day)

"Wake up everyone! Please, at the usual time! Come on and wake up!" Monokuma's voice roused Angie from her sleep, and she glanced over to see that neither she nor Rantaro had moved at all from the positions they'd fallen asleep in. That was reassuring, that he wasn't a restless sleeper, and she could count on him to do the same in future. His eyes met hers, but Monokuma kept talking over the intercom, "By the way, do you think it's too soon to start handing out my next batch of motives? I was thinking I'd start at breakfast, but then I realized you weak-willed brats probably need a day to recover first... So I'll be nice, just this once, and hold off until dinner! Have a nice da-ay!"

"...Morning, Angie," Rantaro said after giving it a few moments, just in case Monokuma wasn't really finished, "How'd you sleep?"

"I slept well," Angie said, "You didn't move at all, or anything! I'm impressed and comfortable."

"Well," Rantaro said, a bit of a chuckle tinging his voice, "I'm glad that I was able to meet your basic requirements, Angie."

"You fulfilled the basic requirements very well, Rantaro," Angie noted, then sighed as she sat up, "But... Monokuma's already going to give out more motives? Isn't that too soon? Three people died yesterday, why does it need us to start thinking about murder again so soon?"

"Because it's Monokuma," Rantaro said, "And it wants to see us tear each other apart. That's the only reason that there needs to be, right? It's not like a Killing Game could have any other point to it..."

Angie hesitated a moment, then said, "I don't know about that. Maybe Monokuma doesn't need any other reason, but there's the Mastermind to think about too, right? And whatever that reason is, as bad as this Killing Game is, I'm sure that the Mastermind has some sort of motivation to be doing it. Humans do hurt people for no reason, but not like this."

"Well," Rantaro said, "You said that Idabashi told you True Despair entered the world after the first killing game. Do you think that this could be an attempt to keep that despair going?"

Angie shrugged, turning to stand up, "Yeah, maybe. But if you think real hard about it, doesn't it seem weird? Does anyone here seem like an agent of despair to you, I mean... Even Shirogane, even though she's a murderer, she doesn't seem like _despair_ to me. Maybe I'm just being weird, though."

"We should get to breakfast," Rantaro said, changing the topic as he realized that Angie wanted to drop it, "Have you seen the new Ultimate Labs yet?"

"No," Angie said, "I'm not really interested in those. Ah..." She trailed off, looking down at herself, then grabbed her backpack off the floor, "I should go back to my dorm to get a shower and some clothes, though. I'll meet you at the Dining Hall, okay? Save me a seat next to you."

"I can do that," Rantaro said, then Angie left his room and returned to her own. She pulled out a change of clothes. The same white polo with a music note on the collar, same shorter-than-knee white socks and gray skirt. It was just like what she wore most of the time, back home, except for ceremonial attire. It was so simple, but at least she was comfortable in it. She went into the bathroom and set the clothes down on top of the lid for the laundry hamper, then turned on the water.

She stayed in the borrowed pajamas for a few more moments, until the water was warm enough to her hand. Once it was, she got undressed and stepped in, staring up at the ceiling as the water poured over her. She was thinking too much lately, she decided. Contemplating things which didn't need to be contemplated, at least, not by her. She knew what it was that she, as a person, needed to be doing at a time like this, and that was not thinking about the meaning of hope and despair or the point of a Killing Game.

Angie just showered, and then got dressed. She stared at her backpack when she got back out, then crouched down and opened it up, setting aside the flashback lights she'd taken possession of, rolling them under her bed. She didn't want to deal with the potential consequences of anyone else finding out that she was withholding several flashback lights from them. She could deal with the fallout when she decided it was time to use the lights, and not a moment sooner. With the lights removed, she put her backpack on her shoulders and left her dorm. She didn't run into anybody in the lobby, then went to the Dining Hall. Rantaro had saved her a seat, but even so, there were too many still empty.

"Hey," Angie greeted those who were present, looking around the table. Tenko, Miu, Rantaro, and Kaede were here, as well as herself. She furrowed her brow, "Where is everybody?"

"Well," Kaede answered, "We all know where Tsumugi is. Hoshi's in his lab, and I don't think he's planning to leave. Apparently there's something in there that he doesn't want to risk letting the Mastermind see."

"Oh, really?" Angie asked, blinking a few times, "I see... I'll bring him some food though. What about Ouma and Gokuhara?"

"Hrm..." Tenko mumbled, "I saw Gonta last night, before the nighttime announcements, and he didn't say anything about skipping breakfast. He's usually pretty timely too. Ouma makes sense to be MIA, since he's probably dealing with a lot of emotions right now, but Gonta too? That is kinda strange."

"I hope he's okay..." Angie said, folding her hands in her lap and looking down at the table, "Well, both of them, actually."

"Me too," Kaede said, "But I'm more worried about Gokuhara than Ouma, to tell you the truth. I at least have some idea of where Ouma might be... Given that he knows how to get into a sealed lab, where do you think he'd go?"

"Huh, you're right," Angie said, "Tonight, after the nighttime announcement when it's all quiet, one of us should go over there and try to talk to him..."

"You talked to him pretty often though, right?" Kaede prodded, "When Saihara was in book club with me and Shirogane, Ouma would always go hang out with you instead. So if anyone's going to try to talk to him, I think that it should be you."

"Huh? Okay, if you think so," Angie said with a nod, then started to eat, "I can definitely do that."


	121. Daily Life: Day Nine (Special Goal)

As soon as breakfast was finished, Angie took a plate of food with her up to the fifth floor, then found the door with the question mark on it. So this was Ryoma's lab... This was the only one that would surprise her, probably, if she was able to take a look inside. Unfortunately, with the way the door opened, even somebody of Ryoma's stature was able to keep its innards a secret. That was okay, though. Ryoma carefully opened the door and stepped out at the knock, then looked up, "Ah, Yonaga..."

"Hey there, Hoshi!" Angie greeted him, then held out the plate of food, "I thought you'd been hungry, since I heard that you weren't abandoning your post here. Guarding against being found out by Ultimate Judgment, huh?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm doing," Ryoma said, taking the plate, "Don't say it too loud, though. Some of what you overheard me telling Saihara, isn't what everybody else knows yet, and I'd like to keep it as secret as possible, do you understand?"

"Yes, I get it," Angie said, clasping her hands behind her back, "And I guess that you even have to be suspicious of me, huh...?"

"Please," Ryoma said, "I never even trusted you in the first place, you just eavesdropped with astonishing proficiency. The fact that you overheard had me thinking that could be my last night alive, you know..."

"Aw, I'm sorry!" Angie apologized, "Well, I guess that you want to get back inside, huh? Your lab must be super cool and fun to be in!"

"I have to sit with my back against the door so nobody opens it, and there's nothing to do but Sudoku puzzles," Ryoma deadpanned, then a slight smile showed on his face, "Good thing I love Sudoku."

"I hope you have a nice day!" Angie said, then turned away while Ryoma went back inside. She wanted to see what was in there, but... Well, it didn't seem possible, and it wasn't important or anything. Angie had a different goal for today, after all. A special goal. Though, she had no idea if she would be able to accomplish it. She walked down to the end of the hallway, finding herself faced with one of the windows, with bars over it. But like everything else on this floor, the window was double the size of the other windows, and so were the bars. So the gaps between the bars were also double the size. Angie put her backpack down a few feet away from the window, then dug around in it, coming up with a shot put ball from the warehouse. She'd grabbed it for the express purpose of breaking a window, though it made her backpack quite a bit heavier.

She took a few steps backward, then wound up and threw the heavy ball with all her might. It crashed into the window and there was the satisfying sound of a cascade of glass shattering. Angie took a deep breath, then smiled as she stepped toward the carnage again. Most of the glass fell outside, too, so she didn't have much to clean up later. She'd have to take a piece of bread from the Dining Hall. That was a trick that she remembered Miu mentioning one time, that bread can pick up small glass shards just by pressing it against the floor, safer than trying to trust a dustpan to do the job. For now, though, she started kicking out the jagged edges that clung to the windowsill with the toes of her shoes. Once enough of it was cleared out, she stood on the sill, holding the frame on either side with both hands. She managed to move her hands to the bars without losing her balance, then her feet.

Now came the tough part. She held on for dear life to one bar with both hands as she tried to squeeze between it and the next one over. Her upper body was the tough part, and her hips, because her legs would have to stay on the other side to have a foothold anyway. The one thing she refused to let herself do was look down. She wouldn't, she couldn't do that, because then she'd fail in her special goal and the window would be broken for no reason. She managed to get to the outside, then inched her way over to the corner, where there was an extra fastener for the bars about midway up. It was almost as tall as her, and she wasn't very athletic, but she was motivated by her goal and her will to live, and got one foot up onto the fastener. Then the other, but it was an equal challenge to get on top of the bars. One her feet were on top, though, she had the edge of the roof to hold onto, though it was even taller than the previous two climbs she had to do. She couldn't see over the top of the roof, despite it being a bit shorter than her, because it was taller than her eyes.

She took a deep breath, then managed to get her elbows over the edge, though she was wobbling on her toes. It was now or never. She pushed against the roof with her arms and jumped from the bars, knowing she really just had this one shot. She managed to get her entire torso onto the roof, then scrabbled against the wall with her feet to push herself the rest of the way over. She did it. She'd gotten onto the roof. She lay there for a few moments, breathing heavily, trying to get her bearings. Trying to figure out how exactly she'd managed that, because she was definitely not expecting to really be able to get here, at least, not without more tribulations than that.

She got to her knees, then looked around. She spotted it, then ran over and scooped it up. The Flashback Light that Monokuma said it had dropped up here. It hadn't been lying about this. Angie's collection was growing.

Now how was she going to get back inside?

She'd figure it out.


	122. Daily Life: Day Nine (POV switch)

Kaede decided to go to her lab after breakfast. Even though she'd just been there to pick up books yesterday, it felt like it had been forever since she actually spent time in here. It was really strange, to be here without Tsumugi there with her, but Kaede just wanted to appreciate her lab's environment a little bit. Even now that it felt empty and lonely, the atmosphere served as a comfort to her, and sometimes it was better to be alone for a little while than to constantly try to be around people, she'd decided. Caring for people didn't pan out in a good way here.

Kaede wished she could stop caring, but that wasn't about to happen. She cared about Tsumugi, and Miu, and everybody. Everybody here meant something to her. Everybody here had always meant something to her, except for that first murder. She never got the chance to know Himiko. She couldn't imagine wanting the chance to get to know Korekiyo...

But she'd been selfish, hadn't she, to cry in this same spot with Shuichi back then? She was just so upset that a murder had happened in the first place, but he'd actually known Korekiyo. He was the only one to actually know Korekiyo, as it turned out during the trial. He'd talked to him. Gotten him to open up. Made a promise with him.

And then, he was dead.

And now here was Kaede. She'd been insensitive back then. Why did she break down when she didn't even know the dead, why couldn't she just comfort Shuichi back then? Now, here she was, distorted from her own ideals. She'd almost committed a murder herself. She was dating a killer. A murderer who killed someone who Kaede cared about too. Why was she able to look past that? What was wrong with her? Was it because she wanted to hold onto Shuichi, and as the other member of the Study Group, Tsumugi was the closest she could get?

Or maybe she was just broken. Maybe she hadn't changed at all, and she was this messed up from the beginning. It just took a Killing Game for her to realize it.

She wished with all her heart that Shuichi was still alive, but she also found herself wondering if he'd be better off never seeing her like this. If this was really who she was, she'd have ended up this way eventually. No matter what happened. Shuichi was so good, and here she was. 

Kaede wanted to know if she'd ever been a good person. She wanted more memories. Those Flashback lights kept bringing her one step at a time, closer to the truth. With the memories still missing from her head, she had no way to even know her own true nature. If she'd done anything bad before, or if she had the Killing Game to blame for her shift in morals...

And the worst bit of this crisis she was having was that she couldn't talk about it with anybody here. They were already on the brink of hating her for the way that she was, and besides... It was also possible that if it was the Killing Game that was twisting her, the others were secretly falling apart just as much.

Then there was Tsumugi. Kaede couldn't ask Tsumugi about this either, in part because Tsumugi had slipped just the way Kaede had already, and part because Kaede would sound cruel to say to Tsumugi's face that she hated herself for still loving her. That was something she couldn't do.

Kaede didn't know how long she sat in her lab, lost in thought, but she waited until she felt calm again to leave. Once she did, she discovered that her time loss had gone in the opposite direction as it usually did. She was only there for half an hour, which was a relief.

Once she left the lab, she bumped into Miu, physically. They both fell onto the ground, and Kaede groaned, rubbing her forehead where they'd collided. Rather than make any complaints of her own, Miu approached her and held her hands out toward her injured head, "Ah, oh no, I'm so sorry! Are you alright, Mistress Akamatsu? I'm afraid that I wasn't watching where I was going!"

"I'm fine," Kaede said, "I wasn't looking where I was going either. Where are you going in such a hurry, Iruma?"

"Oh, I was going to the warehouse," She explained, "I needed to get a broom and dustpan. Since there's no such thing as an especially high-quality broom, there aren't any in my lab, so I needed to get all the way down to the first floor from the fifth..."

"What happened on the fifth floor?" Kaede asked.

"I don't know," Miu said, shrugging, "There was some glass on the floor, and the window's broken. I think most of it fell in the grass outside, though."

"The grass outside..." Kaede trailed off, then nodded in agreement, "Oh, okay. I'll see if I can figure out what broke the window, then. I'll check back in with you later?"

"Ah, thank you, Akamatsu. That's a good idea," Miu said, giving a short bow in her direction before she continued running, waving as she went, "Anyway, have you seen Gokuhara's feet? I need to get that glass out of there before the shoeless guy gets hurt!"

"Heh, good point," Kaede noted, though she took her time to go investigate. She knew where the window on the fifth floor was, so she went to where it would go to on the outside of the building. In the grass, there was indeed a pile of glass, though it was very spread out. After looking around a little longer, she found a shot put ball. She picked it up, and determined that though it was quite heavy, it was something that was designed to be thrown, not dropped. She could throw it if she wanted, and she wasn't especially strong.

Though, finding this was a bit strange to her. This meant that somebody broke the window on purpose, and she couldn't imagine why anybody would want to do that. It wasn't like the shot-put ball had hit somebody walking below, or even had more than a sliver of a chance that it would do that. And it wasn't like there was any reason to try and go through any of these windows, either. If somebody wanted fresh air, they could just go outside, there was nothing stopping them.

Or, well, Kaede had a thought. Ryoma couldn't. He had to guard his lab from the Mastermind. Had someone decided to break the window to get some outside air onto the floor for him, that would make sense and be nice of somebody to do. Kaede decided to believe that for the time being, but keep the information in mind in case it turned out to have some worse connotation.

After all, Gonta was still missing.


	123. Daily Life: Day Nine (Give Up, Give In.)

Kaede stood up to turn away from the pile of glass, only to find herself face-to-face with Tenko. She jumped in surprise, but then greeted her, "What's going on, Chabashira?"

"Ah," Tenko answered, "I'm looking for Gokuhara. And for Yonaga, too."

"Yonaga?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow, "I thought only Gokuhara and Ouma were unaccounted for..."

"Yonaga was accounted for at breakfast," Tenko said, "But after she brought Hoshi's breakfast, she's been missing. He said he heard something break right after he closed the door, but didn't think of investigating because Yonaga had been alone in the hallway and he thought it was just her dropping something from her bag. What's going on with you?"

"Checking out the damage from the broken window," Kaede explained. If Tenko has seen Ryoma, she would have also seen the broken window already. So Ryoma heard it break, but didn't know why? That dashed Kaede's theory. She held the shot-put ball out toward Tenko, "Seems like this is the thing that broke the window. Somebody threw it."

"Don't look at me," Tenko said, "Anyone could throw that if they tried hard enough, probably. This isn't like the manhole cover that only me and Gokuhara could lift off the hole."

"I wasn't saying that it was," Kaede said, "But there's a lot of things like that, actually. Iruma and Gokuhara both couldn't fit into the crawlspace under the floorboards, unless they removed one that wasn't already loose along with the first one, for example."

"Huh," Tenko noted, then looked up at the fifth floor window, "Hey, do you think, Akamatsu... Up on the fifth floor, could somebody small enough actually fit through those bars?"

"That's possible," Kaede said, "But, why would somebody want to? And who would?"

Tenko stared for a few minutes more, then shook her head and raised a hand in dismissal, "Ah, nevermind. It doesn't matter or anything. I'm going to keep looking for Gokuhara. You take care, Akamatsu."

With that, Tenko was gone, but Kaede kept staring at that window, only to realize something which she couldn't forget as soon as she noticed it. It wouldn't be easy, but someone who was small but tall enough could probably use those to get onto the roof, and there was one thing to be interested in on that roof, wasn't there? A Flashback Light. Tenko must have realized the same thing too, and decided not to keep looking for Angie. Though, how would Tenko know that Angie had an interest in Flashback Lights? Kaede just knew that Angie was holding onto the one they'd discovered together, so it made sense she'd want to find another one. How would Tenko know that, though?

Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with that and Kaede was overthinking things. She wouldn't pretend like she didn't do that from time to time. She put the shot put ball into her bag, then immediately regretted it, because it weighed down on her shoulder in quite the obnoxious way. She took it back out, then decided to store it in her dorm, since it wasn't like anyone would be in there anytime soon. She could store this very heavy potential future evidence in there. After she dropped it off, she left the dorm building again, and this time ran into Rantaro in the courtyard. He was sitting at the singular picnic table. Kaede approached and sat down across from him.

"Oh, Akamatsu. How are you?" Rantaro asked when he noticed her.

"As good as I can be, I guess," Kaede admitted, tapping her fingers against the table, "It's kind of hard."

"Mm," Rantaro agreed, shifting in his seat, "I can only imagine. It's not like you can help how you feel about somebody, for better or for worse. I guess it would feel pretty bad if you liked someone and everybody else disliked that person."

"It is," Kaede said, "What's even worse about it is that I know it's wrong, but I can't bring myself to like her any less for what she did. I don't approve of it, obviously, and it's something I dislike about her, but my overall opinion is unchanged. That's kind of been eating me up. I mean, knowing what you'll all think of me for feeling this way isn't helping either. I have an obligation to stay objective and trustworthy during a trial, but I swear, I'll still find the culprit, no matter who it is. Even if it's her..."

"Who says there will even be another culprit?" Rantaro asked.

"You know there will be," Kaede said, "We can't afford to be optimistic anymore."

"Angie says we have to be," Rantaro said, leaning back, "That we have to keep holding out hope, you know?"

"Why should I care what Angie says about that?" Kaede asked, frowning with her hands pressed between her knees, "I'm starting to think Chabashira was onto something, when we were trapped underground and scared for our lives? Hope is a construct. There's no such thing as hope in the world, it's just something that exists in here to make our despair worse."

"If you really don't have _any_ hope," Rantaro prodded, leaning forward across the table, "Then why do you care about things like being trustworthy in a trial, or how liking a murderer makes you less of a good person? Why are you still here, and not dead? Hope just means that we believe we can find happiness somewhere in our futures, and there's no way that you don't feel that way."

"You don't know what's in my head, Amami," Kaede said, her breath catching in her throat, "Just because I'm still here doesn't mean I have any hope for the future... I can't think of any way, even if I try, that any of us can be _happy_ in the future. The best we can do is survive. And that's... My role. I'm here to help the innocent survive."

Kaede froze though, to an extent that Rantaro just stared at her in confusion, staring at the table with her arms wrapped around herself and her eyes blank. Her role? Why did she say that? What did that even mean? Could it be...

The Flashback Light she and Angie conspired to hide had one more bit of information that they hadn't yet realized?

Something inexplicable about roles they were supposed to fill? Kaede's role... Was to find the culprit and make sure the game didn't end prematurely with the deaths of everyone involved.

And how had that been assigned to her?


	124. Daily Life: Day Nine (A Discovery)

"Akamatsu? Are you okay?" Rantaro asked, reaching out to touch her forehead to check if she had a fever or something. It was jarring, when she'd gone from proclaiming her hopelessness to being completely immobile, staring at the picnic table.

"I'm not sure..." Kaede answered, trailing off. She dug her fingernails into her palms to try and ground herself, then locked eyes with Rantaro, "Do you... Do you think that you have a role, here? Something you're supposed to do when it comes to interacting with the rest of us?"

"Ah... No, I don't think so?" Rantaro said, "Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

"I'm fine," Kaede said, swatting his hand away as she stood up from the table, turning away, "It's just... Something I'm remembering. And I don't know why."

"Did Yonaga show you that light?" Rantaro questioned, then clapped his hands over his mouth when he realized he wasn't supposed to be mentioning that.

"Yonaga showed you a light?" Kaede asked.

"No, she didn't show it to me," Rantaro admitted, figuring he'd already dug the hole, may as well lay down in it, "She just told me about it. It was the one that Iruma was given to tell her which of her motives was the lie, but she handed it off to Yonaga, who's the only one to use it so far."

Kaede had to wonder what Angie was up to, having another Flashback Light in her possession. Were the new lights just that awful that they shouldn't be shared, and Angie was just the one who was holding onto them? Or was there more to it? Kaede decided that she would have to get Angie in private at some point to talk to her about it. She couldn't accuse her of anything around other people, if it turned out she was completely wrong.

"Well, no, I haven't used any Flashback Lights," Kaede lied, "But people have been remembering things without lights, right?"

"Sometimes, I guess," Rantaro said, then glanced around, "Er, I wasn't really supposed to tell you that she had that light, though. I should probably stop talking to you before I say anything else I shouldn't."

 _Now what's that supposed to mean?_ Kaede thought. Was Angie keeping that light a secret from everybody, or was it just from Kaede? What reason could she have to do that? Kaede was just getting more and more confused today. If Angie already owned two lights, though, then it would be more likely that she'd gone onto the roof to retrieve another one that Monokuma said existed? And did that mean...

The escape tunnel. Kaede ran in its direction, throwing open the door to the boiler room, only to see Tenko sitting on the floor with her knees hanging over the edge of the manhole, feet dangling in space. She glanced up to see Kaede, then lifted a hand in greeting, though it was a miserable one, "The escape tunnel's been deactivated."

"Deactivated?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow and stepping closer, "What do you mean? I came here, thinking that Yonaga might be trying to retrieve the Flashback Light from inside of it..."

"The booby traps are gone. There's nothing at the end of it. A big door that's got an electric field, and a keypad with a code that we have no way of knowing. There was a note taped to the front of the keypad that said somebody had navigated the tunnel successfully, and the traps would be deactivated as a result. I don't think... Yonaga could have gotten through there. She may have the power of a God on her side, sure, but she's still a pianist. There's only so much she can be capable of."

"I kind of thought you'd be the only person who stood a chance at that tunnel, Chabashira," Kaede observed, holding her hand out and dropping a few pieces of lint from her pocket into the deep hole, "Who do you think it was?"

"Maybe it was Gokuhara," Tenko said, putting her chin in her hands, "Maybe, as the one who navigated the traps, he didn't need the keycode and the door opened for him, and he left. He got out of here. That's why we can't find him... I can't imagine any other reason that he'd be missing. He's a big guy, it's not exactly easy to lose track of someone like that. Oh, the Flashback Light's gone too. I don't have it, and Yonaga won't find it."

"What made you think that Yonaga went to the roof for its Flashback Light?" Kaede asked.

Tenko hesitated, but gave her an answer, "When we were talking about Atua before, when she was telling me about her island's culture, Yonaga said something like... Atua can't tell you something that you have no way of expecting to be true. So, something that a Flashback Light would tell us about. Must be kind of freaky, for somebody who's supposed to know almost everything, to have memory gaps."

"I see," Kaede said, then decided to change the topic, "Are you okay, with Gokuhara being gone? You two were friends, right?"

"I'm happy," Tenko said, but she didn't sound it, "I'm so glad he got out of here. Somebody needed to, and I'm so happy that he was able to escape from this place before he ended up dead. I hope that the outside world is kind to him."

"Me too," Kaede said, "I'll miss him, but I'm also glad that he got out of this Killing Game. It's really awful, how things are happening here. Gokuhara was really nice. He deserves to be free and okay."

"He really does," Tenko said, lifting a hand to wipe at her eyes, "I hope that's what happened, anyway. I don't know what I'd do if it turned out my theory wasn't true..."

"I believe in your theory, Chabashira," Kaede said.

"No offense, Akamatsu," Tenko said, "But these days, your belief isn't worth much. I know your skills are the same as they've always been, but for this kind of shit? I can't trust your _judgment_ very much."

"I guess you're right," Kaede said, "I have poor judgment when it comes to a lot of things. It's kind of pathetic, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Tenko said, standing up with her fists clenched, "I won't mince my words, it is. Your judgment sucks."

"I know," Kaede said, looking over to lock eyes with Tenko, "But, Chabashira. You don't hate me, right?"

"We're still friends," Tenko assured her, "In as much as we can really be friends in a Killing Game. Just because I dislike your choices doesn't mean I dislike you. Nothing you've done has actually hurt anybody."

"Really? Cause it feels to me," Kaede said, "Like I hurt Maki, and like I hurt Idabashi. It was my Ultimate Talent which got them executed."

"No, idiot," Tenko scoffed, "It was Monokuma which got them executed. Monokuma, and The Mastermind. But does that really matter anyway? With more motives coming at dinner, we're still all gonna die here."

"Except for Gokuhara," Kaede said.

"Right," Tenko nodded, then walked away.


	125. Daily Life: Day Nine (POV Switch; Roof Escape)

Angie escaped the roof.

It wasn't easy, but she did it. She regretted leaving her backpack tucked to the side in the hallway, since she was now short a hand, but she also knew that trying to get up here while wearing or carrying the bag would have just been even harder. So it was that Angie came up with her plan, and she absolutely hated herself for it. Well, not yet. She would, though, once she executed it. She made her way to the edge of the roof, noting that the flat tops of the bars jutted out a fair amount. She swallowed hard.

Then, she lay down on her side, held the flashback light in close to her chest, and rolled off the side of the roof. The moments where she was falling were some of the most terrifying she'd ever felt, but she landed on the bars. It was bruising throughout her body from the impact, and it definitely hurt, but she was alive and she was one step closer to getting back inside safely. She sat up on the bars and took a deep breath, knowing that the next step would be harder and more painful.

The distance between the top and bottom bars was approximately twice Angie's height, and like before, she needed a way to guarantee she'd actually land on the bars, and not just have her feet slip through the cracks to send her to her doom. She took another deep breath, then put the Flashback Light in her mouth to hold onto it. She slipped her legs through the top bars, then snaked her hands down and around the bar she was seated on before she moved forward, feeling the bars as a stifling pressure against her body as gravity pulled her through it, slower than she'd been able to squeeze through herself.

Then, she was hanging. There was still too much distance between her feet and the bottom bars, and though the risk of falling completely out of the window was now mostly gone, she could definitely still get hurt like this. So she swung her legs forward and let go to land on her back. She nearly dropped the Flashback Light from between her teeth with the way the back of her head hit the bar with a thud, and she squeezed her eyes shut to fight the sudden wave of nausea.

That was probably a concussion, she realized, but she managed to sit back up and step into the building. She retrieved her backpack from the corner through fuzzy vision, putting the Flashback Light in it, then slung it over her shoulders. She took two stumbling steps down the hall, then fell to her knees. She took deep breaths to try and steady herself, to calm the flood of unpleasant physical sensations which were crashing over her now. Angie managed to get to her feet, though it was an effort, and reached the stairs.

Trying to walk downstairs right now... That probably wasn't a good idea, she realized. Instead, she sat down and took them one step at a time, hoping not to be spotted by anybody. She managed to get all the way down to the second floor before darkness filled her vision and she couldn't go any further.

-

Angie woke up lying on a cot in the infirmary.

She stared up at the ceiling when she opened her eyes, not moving at first. Her backpack had been removed. She turned her head and saw that it was on the floor, next to the medicines which seemed to have been sorted back to their original state of labels, if not organization. Sitting next to her in a folding chair was Rantaro. She was lucky it had been him.

"Yonaga," He said, noticing that she was awake, "What happened to you? Did somebody try to kill you? Do you know who it was?"

"I got a concussion," Angie said, not knowing the extent of her other injuries but being quite certain most of it was a result of her head hitting that bar, "Cause, I went on the roof, then I didn't know how to get down... It's my fault. Nobody attacked me or anything."

"Why would you do that?" Rantaro asked, concerned.

"Because Monokuma said there was another Flashback Light on the roof. I got it," Angie said, moving her arm to point to her backpack in the corner, "I didn't use it, though. I don't have any plans to, either. I get the feeling everyone's gonna need all of the lights at once, sometime soon... If I'll be using them all anyway, why would I need to know what's in them?"

"But..." Rantaro hesitated, then asked, "What was so important about a Flashback Light that you had to get yourself hurt finding it?"

"Whoever set this thing up didn't want us finding that particular light, that's why Monokuma put it on the roof and said there was no way to get there. I think, all of these handheld lights, combined, could probably explain this entire Killing Game. We'll need to do that soon, I think. Everything's going off the rails..." She mumbled.

"Off the rails?" Rantaro asked.

"Saihara died," Angie said, keeping her voice level despite her current condition and the subject matter, "So did Tojo. Both of them should have survived. They were glue, holding us all together. Now, we're all scattered and scared, like... Cockroaches. Of all the things that could have happened here, everything that could have gone wrong... It really shouldn't have been Saihara, you know?"

"I know," Rantaro said, not even the least bit hurt that Angie considered Shuichi's death to be the biggest misfortune here. As much as the two of them were connecting on a personal level, he couldn't deny that Shuichi's murder was the reason that they'd lost any sort of unity among them. If Shuichi had lived, even if Kiibo and Kirumi hadn't, then at least they'd have him as a near-universal mutual friend to rally around, "We can't forgive the Mastermind."

"I think," Angie whispered, "Maybe, even the Mastermind didn't mean for that to happen. Saihara wasn't made into a target by his motives, not really, and he didn't have a Letter from Monokuma... It was just bad luck that Idabashi decided Ouma was the one to try and frame."

"I don't care," Rantaro said, "It's still the Mastermind's fault, for having this Killing Game in the first place."

"I guess you're right," Angie said, then managed to sit up, holding a hand to her forehead, "I'm probably just not thinking straight. I hit my head pretty hard..."

"You look awful," Rantaro said, "Like, it's really obvious you got hurt, you're covered in bruises. If you don't want to have to explain yourself, you should probably not let the others see you like this."

"Good point," Angie said, "During dinner, while everyone's in the Dining Hall, I'll go back to my dorm. Could you maybe bring me a plate...?"

"I can do that," Rantaro said, "I mean, would I really let you starve, even after you did something this stupid?"

"Heh," Angie giggled, just a little, "Right. I think that my injuries are punishment enough for being an idiot. After that, I'll meet you back at your dorm after I go talk to Ouma later on. It'll be dark, so even if someone sees me they probably won't realize that I'm hurt."

"Just be careful," Rantaro said, then leaned over and pressed a comforting kiss to her ailing forehead, "Okay?"

"I will," Angie said, "But does the fact I probably almost died today mean you understand why you shouldn't get too close to me?"

"Afraid not," Rantaro said with a shake of his head, "If anything, worrying about you makes me feel closer to you."

"That's a shame," Angie said, pouting now, "I really don't want you to have to get all sad if I screw up again and die."

"I'd get 'all sad' no matter who it was," Rantaro said, "Is there anything wrong, then, with just cherishing the time I have with you a little bit more first?"

"I guess not," Angie said, then offered him a weak smile, "Then, can I make you promise you'll never hate me?"


	126. Daily Life: Day Nine (POV Switch; New Motives)

When Kaede left the boiler room, the sun was setting. She made her way up to the Dining Hall to find Miu hard at work again, in the kitchen. She thought about striking up a conversation with her, but just sat down at the table instead. It wasn't long before Tenko joined her, but a silence remained between them.

A conversation only began when Rantaro arrived to the table, "I found Yonaga. She's napping in her dorm now," he informed them.

"You did?" Tenko asked, and seemed to relax, "Well, that's good. Now we know where everyone is again."

"Yeah. You found Gokuhara?" Rantaro asked.

"I figured out where he ended up," Tenko said, "It's not like I've seen him or anything. I went down to the Escape Tunnel, and it turns out all the traps were disabled because somebody was able to get through. I can only assume that it was Gokuhara, and that he left this place."

"Doesn't that make you sad?" Rantaro asked, "I thought that we were all going to leave this place together."

"A little," Tenko admitted, "But I'm glad he was able to get out of here, even if it was on his own. At least now he gets to see the outside world again. If he stayed here, who knows what would have happened to him? I guess it's better off this way."

Miu stepped out from the kitchen area, setting some food down, then frowned, "Ah, I heard you found Yonaga, but she's not eating dinner either?"

"Afraid not," Rantaro said, "I guess it's just the four of us for dinner."

"Just the four of you?" Monokuma's voice appeared, then the bear itself did, strolling in through the door, "Well, that's a shame. Now I really have to make my announcement over the PA system! Cause guess what? It's motive time! Hurray! Why's nobody cheering?"

"Because we hate you," Kaede said.

"Wow, how rude... Well, I guess I'll just get on with it then. I _was_ going to use Despair Fever for the motive at this point in the game, but I think I'll pass on that. It would be kind of boring to follow through on that now, when it already ended up a motive without even existing before!" Monokuma laughed through its words, "Instead, I'll pull out one of my other brilliant ideas. Let's call this set of motives, the... I just Gotta Know motive!"

"Excuse me?" Miu questioned, furrowing her brow, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Do you just gotta know?" Monokuma teased, then raised both its paws in the air, "On your Monopads, you'll get a video! It'll be a video about one of your peers, but you won't know who~ It's a video of what happened to their Most Hated Person since the last time they saw them! And so, somebody else will have your most hated person too. Will you just gotta know what happened to the person you hate? Or will you just gotta know who that awful person on your screen is connected to?"

"That's really awful grammar," Miu said.

"It doesn't need to make sense, that's just the way the motive is!" Monokuma exclaimed, striking another pose, "And you'll find those motives right there on your Monopads! Upupu, I bet you'll have a lot of fun! Oh, and one more thing... If you conspire to not watch the videos, then I'll just broadcast them on all the monitors. Then, even if you look away, you'll still have to see all of them."

"That's awful..." Kaede complained, "And when's the deadline for watching them?"

"Tomorrow's morning announcement," Monokuma said, "I'd recommend watching them in private, after all. Some of that's stuff you might be embarrassed to be caught watching! Let's say rated R at worst, though. Nothing pornographic here. You're all minors, so I'd get in trouble for showing you that kind of stuff!"

"Get out of here," Tenko said, glaring in Monokuma's direction, "You gave us motives. You don't need to say or do anything else here, so just leave us alone."

"Awh, I still don't know why you guys hate me so much..." Monokuma sighed, then left before anybody could act to justify their hatred of it, or make any obvious explanation.

Kaede stood up, but Tenko reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back down with a harsh, "You're going to eat dinner first. Investigation can wait, your health comes first, okay?"

Kaede thought it was a little hypocritical of Tenko to care about something like that when her true feelings were that all of them would die here, but she obliged, planting herself back in the seat and lifting her fork to eat. Miu's food was just as good as always... They all ate, and when the meal was done, gathered new platefuls. Tenko got one to drop outside of Shuichi's lab in cause Kokichi wanted it, Rantaro got one for Angie, Miu put together a plate to take up to Ryoma, and Kaede got one for Tsumugi.

It was kind of depressing, how half of the people left inside here hadn't even come to eat dinner. Kaede knew Tsumugi had no choice, and supposed Ryoma didn't either, but it was still sad. She hoped at least Angie would make it to breakfast, and maybe her efforts would pay off and Kokichi would come along too.

With the plateful of food, Kaede made her way out to the courtyard, but rather than go straight to Tsumugi's lab, she veered off to sit down a bit further away on her own and set the plate next to herself before pulling out her Monopad, finding the motive video from its icon right there on the Monopad's main page.

She brought her finger toward the icon, then noticed she was shaking. It was in her nature to be curious. To want to know what's happening, but she was also scared. Somebody's most-hated person... That was vague, wasn't it? And for all she knew, it could be one of her peers. it could be her, or Tsumugi. She didn't know. It could be someone who was dead. The most hated person... But had they even known each other long enough that one of them could be the most hated?

She couldn't hold off any longer, Kaede decided. She hit the icon, preparing for the worst.


	127. Daily Life: Day Nine (An Abstract Motive)

[ ???????'s Most Hated Person Motive Video]

On the screen there was a man. He seemed middle-aged, grey and balding. A pretty standard appearance for somebody that someone here could hate, Kaede figured. He wore a suit, and it seemed to be flashing through moments of his life on the screen. He was shaking hands quite often. Handshake, handshake, handshake. Hand around a wrist, handshake.

There was one thing there that wasn't quite like the others.

Kaede couldn't tear her eyes away as the video painted a portrait for her of somebody who seemed to be a rather standard businessman, with many successful deals, but a dark side that showed occasionally. All in all, it didn't seem like this person saw any repercussions, and then the video just ended with a message that popped up on the screen, appearing from a computer monitor the businessman was using and growing to fill the entire screen.

"Upupu! Looks like this classmate's most hated person is doing just fine! Isn't that a shame? Why should he get to escape despair when you're in here, wasting away? Of course, it must be because of those business deals. Nobody touches the successful! Well, buh-bye!"

[???????'s Most Hated Person Motive Video: END]

Kaede just stared at the screen for a while, but she kept an eye on the clock even in her shock. When the time changed to the next minute, she tucked her Monopad away and picked up the plate of food for Tsumugi, bringing it to her lab. Her mind was filled with confusion. Whose most hated person was that? Who was the hated person? He had a distinct look, but his facial features looked off, as if they'd been blurred so that only someone who'd already met him in person could recognize him.

Even though she knew that she ought to be, Kaede couldn't find it in herself to be very curious about that video. It was abstract, and unpleasant, and she had no idea who it could be referring to or how that could be a motive at all. Maybe whoever that businessman was connected to was just being eaten up inside wondering what he'd been up to.

Kaede decided that she wouldn't hesitate to share the video. if anybody asked to see it. It wasn't so horrifying that she wouldn't want to make somebody see it if they didn't have to, and if someone could be willing to kill to get access to that video, then she'd offer it up to avoid being targeted.

She approached Tsumugi's lab, opened the gate, then stepped inside and found Tsumugi, hard at work at one of the lab benches. To avoid startling her, she greeted her quietly, "Hey, Tsumugi..."

"Ah, Kaede," Tsumugi answered, but didn't look up, "Just a minute, I have to finish setting up this centrifuge... And, there," She turned away, then smiled at Kaede, "How was your day?"

"Lost half an hour in my lab, lost a few hours in the boiler room, had several depressing conversations. Not good," Kaede said, holding out the plate, "And the motives got delivered. Does a balding businessman mean anything to you, in a hatred kind of way?"

"I'm not fond of most balding businessmen, they get in my way," Tsumugi said, taking the plate from Kaede, "But my most hated person is not a businessman, she's a doctor. So that's the motive video that you got?"

"That's right," Kaede said, clasping her hands behind her back, "What about you?"

"I didn't look at it yet," Tsumugi said, sitting down on her lab stool and starting to eat from the plate she held in her lap, "I know that I'll need to, but I'd like to take a little more time to avoid playing by Monokuma's rules."

"A little... More time?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow, "What do you mean, Tsumugi?"

"Well," Tsumugi said, clicking her tongue, "I killed somebody, and didn't get executed for that. I can't imagine Monokuma's very happy about that... That's why it helped to give me my punishment. Locked in here, with everyone able to get in whenever they want, I'm really a sitting duck. The Mastermind probably wants me dead. So I'll be as uncooperative as I can. What have I got left to lose?"

"Tsumugi," Kaede said, "Or, if you cooperate, then you'll be spared? You've still got your life left to lose, Monokuma and The Mastermind can't hurt you directly."

"I guess that's true," Tsumugi said, then nodded over toward the corner, "Well, my Monopad is over on that table, if you want to grab it. I would be fine, watching it with you, I think. Even if it's something really awful."

"The one I got, at least, was a pretty abstract video," Kaede said, "Seemed like there was some bad stuff, but it wasn't detailed or anything. Kind of hard to tell what was happening."

"That's good," Tsumugi said, watching as Kaede retrieved her Monopad and brought it back over to where she was sitting, "I should probably wait to watch it until I've finished eating, nonetheless. I'd rather not lose my appetite."

"Good point," Kaede said, then grabbed one of the other lab stools to sit down as well, "So... Here's what you missed, that I found out today. Gokuhara probably used the Escape Tunnel and left the Academy. Yonaga probably got onto the roof, and definitely broke a window. Ouma probably found a way into Saihara's lab."

"That's a lot of probablies," Tsumugi noted, "So you don't know any of that for certain, except that Yonaga broke a window?"

"Right," Kaede said, "Even that's kind of a probably, I guess, though I can't imagine who else would have broken the window. She threw a shot-put ball at the fifth floor window."

"I see..." Tsumugi said, "You know, Kaede? I have to wonder. Obviously, I did something which is pretty awful, but it's also... Kind of some clarity, if you can believe it, to be isolated from everybody else."

"No, that makes sense," Kaede said, "Everyone's getting kind of fucked up and crazy now. That includes me and you, too, you know... But it feels less like that, when it's just the two of us, in here."

Tsumugi hesitated, staring up as she spoke again, "I feel like, because of this Killing Game, I'm kind of losing myself. And I don't like the person I'm becoming. But I don't like the person I used to be, either. I was really, truly pathetic. I don't want to be a Tragic Ultimate anymore. I want... To become somebody that can be believed in. Not somebody who'd kill, and not somebody who wants to die."

"It'll be hard to leave behind either of those versions of yourself that you don't like," Kaede said, "Some people will never let you live it down."

"Nobody will," Tsumugi said, "Not anyone else, and not you either. Everyone who knows... And somehow, I think everyone will know, will never let me move on. I killed someone. That makes me a murderer, and I can't take that back. And I used to take so many drugs I didn't need to face my own sadness. That makes me a pathetic person. I can dream, though? Maybe some miracle would come and save me from all of that. Maybe I'd find some secret chance for a clean slate."

"Everyone wishes for something like that," Kaede said, "But that sort of chance just doesn't exist. You just have to deal with the people you've been, when you work on the person you are. That'll make people hate you sometimes, but it's okay. There will always be some people who won't."

"I know," Tsumugi said, her voice faint, "But I can dream, can't I...?" She trailed off, then spoke again, "Did you ever notice, Kaede? The stars aren't right at all here."

"They're not?" Kaede asked.

"No," Tsumugi said, "None of the constellations I know, and way too many planets too... It's a completely different night sky. And I don't know how or why it's here, but there's two things about this Academy that I'm glad for. This all-new sky, and you."

"Tsumugi..." Kaede trailed off, thinking of what to say, then gave her response, "I feel the same. And... I don't like the person I'm becoming, because of the way I feel about you. I'm completely hopeless and I feel like I've lost my own principles... But for as long as you like the person I am, I'll be here with you. Maybe we can even help each other be better, someday."

\----  
  
And it's another speedpaint, too ;3


	128. Daily Life: Day Nine (Cynic Kaede)

When Tsumugi was finished eating, she took her Monopad from Kaede, and found the icon for a 'most hated person' video. She just stared at it, hesitating, "Something feels really wrong, finding out the type of person that somebody I know hates more than anything else. Even more than learning their secrets, this feels like spying on their emotions, somehow."

"I understand," Kaede said, "But you know, you have to do it, or else..."

"Yeah," Tsumugi said, "It would be worse of me, to make everyone need to see it just because I don't want to."

"Do you want me to watch it with you?" Kaede asked.

"No, I'll watch it myself. I'll let you know if I think it's something you should know about..." Tsumugi said, "I think it's better if fewer people have to see these things. I know that I wouldn't want more than one person finding out what my most hated person is up to these days."

"I understand," Kaede said, "In that case, do you want me to leave you alone for a bit?"

"I'd appreciate that, thank you," Tsumugi said, "I'll see you later tonight, then?"

"Of course," Kaede said, "I'll be back soon."

"Oh, and Kaede?" Tsumugi prompted as she turned to leave, "I think you should pay close attention to the others. After the last trial... I feel like it's more likely someone else would do something they'd regret."

"Don't worry, Tsumugi," Kaede said, "My Ultimate Talent is the only thing I really have going for me, so I'm not about to falter in putting it to use. I'll keep observing everybody."

"Good," Tsumugi said, "Even if everyone else hates me, I still care about them. I don't want anybody else to die."

"I don't either," Kaede admitted, but kept from mentioning her reservations that at this rate, it was going to happen. Somebody else would die, then there'd be another trial, and the culprit would be executed. Though she could barely even hypothesize how these motives could result in a murder, she was still cynical.

It almost felt like, after the previous case, motives weren't necessary. Then again, had they been necessary from the start? All they did was elevate tension in general, rather than actually encouraging murder directly. The first two trials had nothing to do with Monokuma motives, period, there were none.

But Tsumugi didn't need to become as jaded as Kaede had. So she'd keep that to herself.

Kaede went looking for something for something to do with herself while she left Tsumugi to her own devices, but with only half of her classmates still left at this Academy, it was a lot harder to find somebody to talk to. At least one of them had disappeared not by dying, but by escaping. That was one small upside that Kaede had to be grateful for.

Though she wished that Gonta could have found some way to bring somebody, just one person with him, she figured that Monokuma probably gave him some sort of ultimatum. Him alone, or nobody at all, she imagined. That was the sort of thing she could see that bear doing.

Kaede decided that if she wasn't going to run into anyone by chance, she'd find a captive audience. The captive audience; Ryoma Hoshi, who wouldn't leave the entryway of his Ultimate Lab. Kaede had to go all the way upstairs to find him, and still didn't run into anyone along the way. Well, at this point, the only others who would even be around were Miu, Rantaro, and Tenko... She perished the thought and knocked on Ryoma's door.

Ryoma opened it, then looked up to make eye contact with her, "Akamatsu. Do you need something? I hope you're not here to ask me to share the video I received. Don't worry, I can speak with confidence in saying it's not yours."

"I wasn't here to ask about the video," Kaede said, "Just to talk. But now that you mention it, does a balding businessman who wears grey suits mean anything to you?"

"Can't say it does," Ryoma said, shrugging, "And the thing is... I have no interest in the video aimed at me, even if you did have mine. I already know exactly what the person I hate most has been up to. However, since you gave me that opportunity, I'll offer you one as well, though I really can't imagine I got your video. A young boy who dresses in expensive clothing?"

"That really means nothing to me," Kaede said, "I don't think I've ever even met a young boy who dresses in expensive clothing."

"I thought as much," Ryoma said, then crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm only assuming, Akamatsu, that your most hated person would be the one who made you an orphan, right? And I don't think a child would be capable of such a thing."

"Probably not," Kaede agreed, "And definitely not, in this particular case."

"So," Ryoma said, "If you didn't want to discuss the motive videos, why did you want to talk to me?"

"I don't know," Kaede said, "I just wanted to talk to somebody, and I knew where I could find you. And, besides... You and I should probably get along, if I'm dating your little sister, right?"

"So she did tell you," Ryoma said, shutting the door behind himself and sliding down to sit on the floor, motioning for Kaede to do the same. She sat down next to him, leaning back against the wall, "It's really strange, for her to be here... Whoever set this up obviously didn't want us to remember each other, so why take both of us anyway? Why send in two people who already have a connection?"

"Tsumugi had this theory that you aren't the only ones, either. She thinks it's possible that more of us knew each other and had our memories wiped out," Kaede said, "Though, she still remembered you existed, just not that you were the same stepbrother she was thinking of. Maybe that's because your existence was really tied into her past, though..."

"I suppose it's possible," Ryoma said.

"Hey, Hoshi?" Kaede asked, finally asking a question she'd been pondering for a while now, "Do you know why you became the Ultimate Survivor?"


	129. Daily Life: Day Nine (A Chat with Ryoma)

"I actually don't know that," Ryoma said, "I have no idea why I've been brought back into Killing Games twice over. Maybe they never actually end, or maybe it's a false memory that five people make it to the end. Maybe it's just one, and that one just keeps going through Killing Games until they die. But... I don't remember that many people dying in the past games, so that's probably wrong. Maybe it's just because there's no reason to send me back out into the world. I don't have much time left, so I may as well spend it in a Killing Game. If I get killed, it's no big loss."

"What... do you mean?" Kaede asked.

Ryoma just looked at her for a few minutes before explaining himself, "Because of my chronic illness, I also have a weakened immune system. I caught something, just before I got taken away to my first Killing Game, and it's slowly killing me. I think, even if I survive to the end of this game... I won't be the Ultimate Survivor a third time."

"Does Tsumugi know?" Kaede asked.

"Our memories of each other are still frustratingly fuzzy, so I don't know," Ryoma said, "And I'm not about to be the one to tell her. I already ended up leaving her behind once, I don't want to have to say it'll happen again. Chances are, I'll get killed, or I'll get dragged into another game and die right at the beginning. Either way, she doesn't have to know that I knew I'd be leaving her again. That I knew," He sighed, staring at his own hands, "She would never be able to send me to space, after all."

Kaede didn't know what to say.

She didn't need to, because Ryoma filled the silence again a few moments later, "Though, I guess that's the least to worry about now. That foolish girl, she'd do anything for the people she loves, and now it's gotten her into so much trouble... I can't leave my lab unattended, you know, so I'll be counting on you to keep her safe at night."

"Heh," Kaede muttered, "Did you already know, I was spending my nights in her lab with her?"

"There's no way I could have known it, but I could assume as much. Based on what I've learned about you as a person, Akamatsu, you wouldn't leave her alone after she stuck her neck out for you and your friends like that," He tapped his fingers on the floor, "I guess I knew that she didn't have an alibi for that murder. And I was afraid to trust in Ouma, because of what somebody else did in another game, and especially after the first murder was pointing to him... I still can't figure out if I really believed it wasn't her, or if I was trying to cover for her."

"That's because, now that the trial's over, there's no way of knowing the truth. And Tsumugi isn't about to change her story," Kaede said, "Even if it wasn't her... She'll cover for Ouma because he's in a sorry enough state. And she'll cover for you, too. You know why."

"I am still a suspect, huh?" Ryoma noted, "Even with Tsumugi's confession. I could have done it. So could Ouma. And Tsumugi's so devoted to the people she cares about that she'd never admit it if it wasn't the truth, that she killed Tojo. But for as much as my word is worth, it wasn't me. Now that I'm thinking it over, it probably wasn't Ouma either. This is just the type of thing Tsumugi would do."

"I think so too," Kaede said, then clasped her hands together and sighed, "Hey. You and Ouma were alone together in the infirmary, at least for a little bit. Why didn't you talk out your suspicions then?"

"Because that just wasn't what we talked about," Ryoma said, "I'd stopped thinking he was the one to kill Saihara, to tell you the truth. Even as I thought he killed Tojo, I could have a civil conversation with him. Thanks to everyone here, especially him, I'd been able to come out of my shell and make friends, you know. Even if I couldn't trust him anymore, I still respect him."

"I understand," Kaede said, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath before speaking again, "Do you really think Ouma killed somebody before he came here?"

"I can't say that I do," Ryoma said, "I mean, I'm not somebody to ask about that kind of thing anyhow. I'm not like you and Chabashira, or how Tojo was. I can't really observe somebody's character very well or anything. Whatever my original talent was had nothing to do with reading people. Still, when it comes to Ouma, I think that... He tried to kill somebody before coming here, but for whatever reason, he couldn't go through with it. Do you think that's accurate?"

"Chabashira said something similar, kind of," Kaede said, "She said that he could have been in a situation where he wanted to kill somebody, but even he couldn't know if the person he wanted to kill was an enemy of his, or just himself..."

"I can see that," Ryoma said, "Especially if those other two statements were the truths. I can't imagine leading the type of life that Ouma must have led... Even in dying mediums like old-school magic, show business must really be all the same."

Kaede looked up at the tall ceiling, feeling a light breeze on her cheek, "Yeah. So, I just remembered... You don't know why the window up here got broken?"

Ryoma shook his head, "No, I had nothing to do with it. I can only assume Yonaga did it, though. Speaking of which, did you ever track her down?"

"Amami did," Kaede said, "He just said he found her, and she was napping in her room."

"If she's not at breakfast tomorrow, you might want to get worried," Ryoma said.

"You think Amami might've killed her?" Kaede asked, then couldn't help but let a bittersweet chuckle tumble out from her lungs, clutching at her own stomach. It had a dark and unsettling property, even to herself, "I'm sorry, it's just. I'm really having trouble thinking that another murder won't happen, and yet, I didn't even think that he could be lying to me about that... God, I'm such a pathetic excuse for a detective. I always have been, and I always will be..."

"Yeah, you are," Ryoma didn't mince his words, "Pathetic, that is. But you've solved every case that's crossed your path, so what makes you pathetic is saying that you're a bad detective when you've seen nothing but success. If you think he was telling the truth, then I'll trust your judgment. You proved to me with the last trial, that you can be objective when it comes to solving a case. I'm sure if he was lying, you would have been able to tell."

"Good point," Kaede said, then realized that Rantaro was the only person she'd talked to that day who she could say with confidence told her the truth. Not that she'd heard lies from other people, but he was the only one who gave her a hard statement and not a theory that didn't really have a value of truth behind it. Had he done that on purpose, to reassure her that he knew what he was doing? She found herself wanting to check on Angie, but she knew she shouldn't.

Rantaro was telling the truth, and Angie could take care of herself. She promised she'd talk to Kokichi tonight. Kaede knew she would.


	130. Daily Life: Day Nine (POV Switch; A Visit)

"Hey everybody! It's nighttime, nighttime! I hope you've all watched your videos, or that you do it before you go to sleep, or else I'll be forced to share those videos with everybody! Even if you just gotta know who has your video, or what's happened to your most hated person, I bet nobody wants everyone to know what kind of person they hate the most! Anyway, I hope you get some good rest. I know I will. I'll have wonderful dreams about the murder that will definitely happen tomorrow night! Or at least, sometime soon, Upupu!" Monokuma made its announcement, and Angie knew it was time to move.

She had promised to talk to Kokichi tonight, and she had even more going for her now, much to her own surprise. Her expedition to the roof really did make her look awful, which meant that she'd be able to show him her own vulnerability to get him to open up to her more. That, and she'd taken the concealer off her knees. Kaede was right that they'd hung out often before, during the Book Club that those three held, but it wasn't like they'd had serious conversations. Kokichi wasn't about to open up to Angie when she was so secretive about her own problems, bar the occasional Freudian Slip. He asked her about specific things, sometimes, but she always brushed them off. After doing that, she'd be a hypocrite to ask him about his own past, or fears, or problems.

Now was different, though. She was seeing him about a problem everyone knew about. Shuichi's death. He already witnessed, too, how torn up she was about it herself. When she saw the body, she was beyond shocked. It just wasn't right. It wasn't right at all.

Even Atua was surprised. A God could predict a lot of things, but humans were strange creatures who did things which didn't make sense. Who changed their minds, so even if Atua could predict what a human was going to do, they may well decide to do something else by the time the prediction was supposed to come true. All that Atua had ever been able to tell her about the outcome of this Killing Game was, when she arrived, that there was no way that nobody would commit a murder. The fact that somebody died was never a shock to her. It was always just who the person was.

Though, it wasn't like there was anyone here whose death would have any different effect on her than shock and grief to varying extents, so why did she bother even thinking about such a thing? If Atua told her, she'd just end up mourning someone who was still alive. Every single death was like a punch right to her gut, but Angie knew that in the realm of a Killing Game, it could be a necessary evil. That didn't make her feel any better. Thinking about it didn't make her feel better at all, not even a little bit. It gave her no consolation to think that there was likely some purpose behind all of this.

Because there was, beyond a doubt, no purpose to somebody like Shuichi being killed.

Angie left her newest Flashback Light under the bed with the others. She didn't need to tell them apart, since she'd be using them all at once anyway. She brought her backpack with her, though, for the other useful things she carried. And just in case there was something else besides Kokichi in that lab, she thought to herself, just a bit. It wasn't like she really wanted to be the one in control of every Flashback Light, but aside from ill-advised trips to the roof of the Academy, Angie liked to think she had sound judgment and could properly decide when those memories should be returned.

Angie arrived to Shuichi's lab. It was a simple, rectangular building with white walls and a simple sliding door. It might not have looked like a lab for an Ultimate Artist, if not for the roof. It was circular and made entirely of glass, offering natural light during the day. Each window-frame had an LED tube attached to it, to fully light the room when the sun was away. Light was an important thing for an art studio, right? Angie didn't know much about arts outside of her own music, but that seemed like something along the lines of common sense. She found herself just staring at it for a while, psyching herself up before she stepped up to the door, took a deep breath, and knocked on it.

No answer.

She tried again, this time harder, louder, but she still didn't get any type of response from inside. That's okay, she didn't expect this to be easy. She waited a few moments before she tried to get Kokichi's attention again, through the door, leaning her entire weight against it as she called, "Ouma! It's Yonaga. I want to talk to you. Chabashira left some food out here for you, too... You need to eat, especially if you haven't slept!"

Still no response. She groaned and turned around, sliding down the door to sit on the grass just outside of the lab. She spoke again, this time not quite as loud, "You know, Ouma. I came here totally ready to answer all the questions you used to ask me. About who I was and why I'm like this, and I thought you wanted to hear that. You have to let me in, though. You have to see the way I look right now and know that I'm sincere..."

Her knees, in particular. She wouldn't claim the other bruises to have anything to do with her past. She was using manipulation tactics, technically, but it was for Kokichi's own good, so she wouldn't stoop as low as the actually tell a lie within her techniques. She had one more option to get inside, and she wasn't sure about using it, wasn't sure if Kokichi should even know about it, but worry about his current state won out. She called one more time, through the door, "Ouma. I have the video of your most hated person."

A lock clicked behind her head.


	131. Daily Life: Day Nine (The Half-Blind Boy and The Girl With The Concussion)

Angie leaned forward as Kokichi slid the door open behind her, then picked up the plate and stood up, turning around to face him. He just stared at her, then took a step backwards. She stepped in, then closed the door behind herself. Kokichi reached past her to lock it again, mumbling, "It wasn't barricaded or anything, just locked from the inside... Like that was hard to figure out."

"That's weird," Angie said, "It's like Monokuma wanted you to be able to get in here."

"Yeah, probably," Kokichi said, his voice quiet as he took the plate from her and continued, "It left a Flashback Light in here, anyway."

"It did?" Angie asked, "Did you use it?"

"I did," Kokichi said, "And, chances are, if I hadn't used it... I would have gotten to breakfast, or at least dinner. I came here because I wanted to feel closer to him, you know? Even if he never got the chance to see this, it's the kind of things he would have loved. That means something. But, then I used the Flashback Light, and I thought... I should just stay here."

"Well," Angie held her hands in close to herself, "I saw a pretty bad Flashback Light too, and I'm still going outside. So it can't just be that, you know."

"...Did Atua tell you to say that?" Kokichi asked.

"No, it's just me," Angie said, "Atua knows a lot of things, but he's a God. He can be sad and stuff, that bad things happen to his children, but he doesn't feel sad the way that humans do. Atua can't feel lost, or broken. But I can, so I can understand."

"If you're admitting this to me," Kokichi said, sitting down against the wall and setting the plate down in his lap to eat, "Then you must have been seriously concerned. You couldn't have known I'd find a Flashback Light here... So why?"

"Because," Angie said, "I don't buy your story, about getting hurt like that in your sleep. Even though Kaede proved that sleeping pills were involved, those things weren't that strong. Saihara probably woke up from being dragged around, so I think if you did get hurt in your sleep you'd have woken up immediately," Angie stepped over and sat down across from him, cross-legged, "Not to mention, you got drugged way earlier than the rest of us... A heavier dose can only increase the effect so much."

"So you found me out," Kokichi said, sighing through his words as he brought a hand up to his bandaged face, "Waking up, without remembering falling asleep... And without Shuichi there... It was all too much. This is probably the worst thing I've ever done to myself..."

"But you'd done stuff like that before, huh?" Angie prodded, "Maybe, after other times you'd gotten drugged?" No response. She continued, offering up something of her own to try and get him to talk, "I have. I've done really bad things to myself after getting put out, actually! Well, waking up from being put out, that is..." She gestured to her knees, "This is the least of it, honestly. Ahh... Isn't it funny how there's people who do awful things when you're awake, but somehow there's a line they'll only cross if they think you won't remember it? As if, letting you wake up with all the feelings that come with that sort of thing, is any better? Or is it just to shoot your credibility right between the eyes?"

"How are you figuring-" Kokichi started to ask, but she cut off his question.

"It's not Atua, actually. I mean, I guess it is in part. Atua pointed me toward you and said, hey, he's like you. And I thought, like me? What about me can somebody else possibly have the same, since I'm so unique? So I got to thinking, maybe you got hurt by someone you had no way of stopping. Maybe you hurt yourself too, because at least it was something you had control over," Angie hesitated, then gave the last bit, "And cutting out your eye after discovering you'd been drugged, that has to mean you're even more the same as me. Something even worse happened when you couldn't even think about fighting back. True helplessness. It's really easy to feel hopeless after something like that. Really easy to battle with bad memories every day, only to have the bad memories get stronger if the situation gets replicated."

"I guess," Kokichi whispered, "If I could figure out other people, they could figure me out too... Though, I never would have guessed that you would have been through something like that."

"I do a good job of hiding it," Angie said, "Because if I just put on a smile, then that's fine, right? It'll make other people happy and keep them from worrying. And it doesn't need to matter, the way that I've felt before... As long as I can help others smile. That's why I carry Atua's message, and why I play music. I want to be able to improve other lives, even though my own has been forfeit for years now."

Kokichi blinked, slowly, "To tell you the truth, that's exactly the same way I always thought about magic. I had to suffer to be able to do it, but when I was on stage, I was happy. And I could make other people happy too, and that was all that really mattered to me. All along I thought, I'll keep going until there's no magic left to show them. And I knew that when I died, it wouldn't undo that happiness. I could go quietly, cause my manager would brush it under the rug. The media would barely catch wind of my death, and they sure as Hell would never know it was suicide."

"I can't believe..." Angie trailed off, "That you actually had it that thought out. Isn't suicide usually an impulsive decision?"

"I guess, usually," Kokichi said, "But my life kind of became one, never-ending hopeless moment. And when I first came here, I was performing, all the time. Shuichi saw through that, though, and I got to actually be myself for a little while. I got to, for the first time in my entire memory, enjoy being Kokichi Ouma. I think, now, if I go to face everyone again... All they'll ever get to see of me is that performance again, from the first two days. If this was what falling in love and losing it was going to feel like, I should have really done it back then. I should have died when I had the chance."

Angie blinked a few times, then decided she had to say it, "You did, probably. Or at least. You tried."

"What do you mean?" Kokichi asked.

"The not-so-good Flashback Light that I used," Angie said, "I was about to drown myself, apparently. After an especially bad incident I forgot about. But someone stopped me before I could, and that's the extent of the memory. Since Flashback Lights give a similar memory to everybody, I can only imagine that... Every one of us actually almost died before coming here."

"That's weird," Kokichi said, "The Light I got... It's really awful. It's actually the most horrifying way I've ever seen to motivate someone to stay alive. Even if I didn't decide to live because it's what Shuichi would want from me, this light would have made up my mind."

"Wait... Are you serious?" Angie asked, "Does it have some type of information about this Killing Game? If it does, could I please have it? I'm holding onto a bunch of lights for when we need them, to tell you the truth. You won't tell anyone, right?"

"I won't," Kokichi said, "You can have it, it does have information about the Killing Game. I don't know if it's useful information, though. All it really says... Is what happens to the bodies of people who die during an Annual Killing Game."


	132. Daily Life: Day Nine (Bodies)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update I got sick and slept till eleven.

"Aren't they just... Cremated, or buried, or something, by Monokuma?" Angie asked, though she knew that if it was something like that, it wouldn't have had such an impact on Kokichi, or his motivation to stay alive.

Kokichi stared at her with his one remaining eye, a grave look as he struggled to get the words out, "It's an auction."

"An... Auction? What?" Angie blinked in shock, staring right back at him in her utter surprise and confusion.

"We already know that people watch the Killing Games. That's how we knew they exist, and how Flashback Lights can give us information like this... The people who watch, they put bids down on the participants. The highest bidder gets the body if or when the participant dies. Why... Why would anyone want that?"

"It's," Angie mumbled, wrapping her arms around herself, "The Ultimate Souvenir, if you really think about it. Whoever's watching has to enjoy this type of awful stuff, so what's better? A post with your favorite participant on it, or your favorite participant's dead body? It's morbid, but it makes... Sense, I guess," She hesitated, then started to shake at a sudden thought, "But, if he's... Still alive, then he could... I didn't realize that... He co-"

"Yonaga," Kokichi spoke in a sharp tone, snapping her out of her panic, "You said that you have my most-hated person video?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Angie said, pulling out her Monopad, "At least, I'm pretty sure that I do, based on what's in it. The guy looks like a real manager-type."

"Let me see," Kokichi said, holding out his hand. Angie hesitated, but then put the Monopad in his hand. He pulled it into his lap and found the video, hitting play. He only watched it for about ten seconds before exiting the video and handing it back over to Angie, muttering, "Bastard's still up to his old tricks. Moving up in the world, too, it's a goddamn idol this time."

"I watched it all the way through," Angie said, "And nothing changes. He doesn't end up with comeuppance, or anything. The last shot, he's sitting on a computer, then a message pops up saying that it's so despairing that he's still fine and you're not."

Kokichi stayed quiet, bringing his good arm back to touch the back of his scalp, right where it connected to his neck, the one place he said Shuichi probably shouldn't touch. He squeezed his eyes shut in discomfort even at touching it himself, but kept his hand there. He could still remember exactly how it felt, when his manager grabbed his hair and his knuckles brushed against that exact spot. And now, somebody else, another innocent would have that same thing burned into their brain. Just a small thing, but the uniqueness of it made it hurt more in memory than any of the more depraved acts alone could have. It was symbolic of those. Of the control that man could exert over anybody he wanted to.

"Ouma," Angie spoke to him, quietly, "Don't cry. If your tear ducts still work in your right eye, it'll..." She trailed off, watching as the gauze started to fall from his face, "Mess up your bandages."

"...Sorry," He brought his hand away from his neck, noting that his voice was choked up now, too, "I didn't even realize... I was somewhere else."

"I know the feeling," Angie said, then stood up, "Come on. You could use some fresh air anyway, and the infirmary definitely. Nobody's out and about at this hour, I watched them all get back to their dorms. And I'm sure Kaede is back in Shirogane's lab, too. Even if anyone does see us, they'll be more surprised by how I look than by you showing your face, you won't have to say a word."

"Okay," Kokichi agreed, and stood as well. He picked up the Flashback Light and gave it to Angie before making his way to the door. He undid the lock, then once they were outside, pulled something from his pocket and used it to shut the lock from outside. He turned and showed it to Angie, "Lockpicks can work both ways, for some types of lock, you know. I don't want anyone else getting in there while I'm gone."

"I can't imagine anyone would want to tarnish Saihara's name by messing with his lab, you know," Angie said.

"I do know," Kokichi said, "But, still. I like being able to feel connected to him. The more people who go in there, the more I'll lose that... maybe in a few days, I'll let everybody in. They deserve to feel that way too, but for now, I want to keep it as much for myself as I can."

"Yeah, I understand that," Angie said, "In fact, thinking you might feel that way, I tried my best not to get too connected to Saihara when i was in there. I can wait my turn."

"Thanks, Yonaga," Kokichi said, "You're a good person."

"Not especially," Angie said, "I just want to be nice and help other people be happy. That doesn't mean I'm good. Just means I'm nice," She turned to look at him with a sad smile, "There's a difference there, you know. You're not especially nice sometimes, Ouma. But you are good. I can tell, in your heart, you really are golden."

"Funny, is that Atua telling you that? Because I don't think I'm that type of person at all," Kokichi said.

"Atua agrees with me," Angie said, "But I thought that all on my own. I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character, too. You're pretty good. Saihara was better, though, right?"

"I don't know if it's possible to be a better person than Shuichi," Kokichi said.

"Probably not," Angie said, "He shouldn't have died."

"Nobody should have," Kokichi said, "But it's a Killing Game. It doesn't matter what types of people any of us were before, someone just wants to see us pushed to our limits to kill and die."

"Yeah..." Angie sighed. They reached the infirmary, and she motioned for Kokichi to sit down on the cot, and she went looking for more bandages to replace his.

"Yonaga?" Kokichi asked, "What kind of person, do you think... Got his body?"


	133. Daily Life: Day Nine (The Big Picture)

Angie didn't know what to say to that, but she decided to go for the best possible route, the least horrible option, "The people who want something that morbid probably wouldn't even like somebody like Saihara. I bet nobody bought it and his body's still just sitting somewhere. Or somebody wanted to protect him from those types of people."

"That's optimistic of you," Kokichi said, sitting still as Angie helped him by changing his bandages out, "I don't think you'd have that opinion if you actually used the Flashback Light."

"Maybe not," Angie said, "But I won't use it until it's time for everyone to know. If I started panicking just from you telling me the information, having a relevant memory... Would probably be even worse."

"If it were possible," Kokichi said, "I'd recommend nobody used it. But... I guess if we're trying to figure out the Killing Game, then it's important information."

"I think," Angie said, "If all the Flashback Lights that became available to us, get used together, maybe we'll understand everything about this Killing Game. Why it happened, why's it happening to _us_. And that's a big mystery. I'm kind of surprised I'm more curious about it than Kaede is."

"Maybe she just isn't the type to look at the big picture," Kokichi said, "I mean, honestly... I wouldn't blame her if she was too focused on the trials to try and think about that too. I know that I don't want to deal with anything except what I have to right now..."

"I'm sorry," Angie said, looking down at the floor, "I guess I just want everybody to understand. This game's almost over, after all. Everyone deserves to know why it happened. If somebody just wanted us dead, they could have just left us where we were, or murdered us. To wipe out our memories and put us in a Killing Game, there's got to be some reason."

"Mm..." Kokichi trailed off with a slight nod, "You're right."

"You're the first person I've said that to who really agreed with me," Angie said, "It can't just be sadism. There's something behind it."

"I'll trust you to find it," Kokichi said.

"Really?" Angie asked, "I'm not exactly the brightest bulb in the box, you know."

"People who say that are always just liars," Kokichi said, "Just means that they're smart about different things than people think are smart. You've got drive to figure this thing out, so I know that you can. I guess it's weird to say, as an Ultimate Talent, but sometimes it's not talent at all. It's ambition that helps you have a better life. I mean," He gave her a knowing look, "Atua knows, talent never helped any of us be happy."

"You don't have to humor me like that," Angie said, "But, yeah, I guess you have a good point. Gokuhara was kind of like that, huh? He was always saying that he wasn't smart, but he knew what he was doing. Especially with Chabashira."

"Was?" Kokichi asked, "What happened to him?"

"Oh, right, you didn't hear," Angie said, "He used the Escape Tunnel. He got out."

"...That's good," Kokichi muttered, "What about Chabashira, though? Will she be okay? He always did things to keep her grounded, you're right. I saw it myself."

"I dunno," Angie said, "She might not be. It's kind of all getting weird and scary now. At least before, we could still have fun sometimes. It feels like we're losing that. Like everything bad that's happened is really crashing down on us all now."

"I'd probably just make it worse," Kokichi said, "It's better if I stay out of the way."

"That actually might be true," Angie admitted, then stepped away, having finished with his bandages, "And I guess that I've bothered you long enough, huh? Inside that lab's kind of another world. A better one. I'll let you get back to it."

"Thanks, Yonaga," Kokichi said with a small nod, then stood up and made his way out of the infirmary, leaving Angie there. She waited there for a little while, then left on her own, pausing in the warehouse to have a look around. She kept finding useful things here, like that shot-put ball. With how easy it was for somebody as weak as her to throw it that hard, something like that would have made a good weapon... 

There were too many things here that could become murder weapons. Way too many. Any place would have these things, though, Angie realized. Humans were much too fragile, in body and in mind. She wished they were stronger. She wished she was stronger.

She left the warehouse and returned to the dorms. She threw the Flashback Light Kokichi gave her under the bed with the rest of them, then left her room to go to Rantaro's. She knocked on his door, gently, so that only he would hear it and not anybody else nearby. The rooms themselves seemed fairly soundproof, but things in the lobby could be heard inside. Probably some strange technology, like how Monokuma was built, which made them soundproof in only one direction.

Rantaro opened the door moments later, then just nodded as he let her in, closing the door before he spoke, "How'd it go?"

"He's as fine as he could be," Angie said, wandering in and sitting on the edge of the bed, "Which isn't really fine, but... we don't have to worry about him."

"That's the best we can hope for, I guess," Rantaro said, then went and sat down next to her, "What about you? Are you doing okay? I'm no expert, but you seemed pretty beat up after your little, er, expedition earlier."

"I'm fine," Angie said, moving over so that she could lean to the side and rest her head against Rantaro's arm, "I guess. Physically, I'm doing okay. Kind of hurt all over, but that's not really new."

"I guess not," Rantaro agreed with a solemn note in his voice. Anyone here could probably relate to her statement in some way or another, "You didn't have to go get that light, you know."

"Yeah I did," Angie said, "Nobody else was going to. And everyone needs to know the truth."

"Angie..." He trailed off, then whispered, "What if the truth is just something really, really awful? And all it does is hurt everybody? The light you used on yourself was pretty bad, after all, you said."

Angie answered without hesitation, "If all of them are really awful, if the truth is something we'd have been better off not knowing, then I guess... We'll die."


	134. Daily Life: Day Nine (Strong For Humans)

"We'll die?" Rantaro questioned, furrowing his brow, "What do you mean?"

"Based on the Flashback Light I used... I think we probably all almost died before we ended up here. We're on borrowed time anyway," Angie said, "And if the truth is really something as awful as you're scared about, then we'll just die, right? Not like it's a big loss."

"How can you say that?" Rantaro asked.

Angie just giggled first, then spoke again, "See, that's what I wanted to hear. Even with the worst case scenario in your mind, you don't think we'd all just die after finding it out. So it's nothing to worry about. People might be weak and fragile, but we're pretty strong as people go. We've been through a lot, and we're still standing."

"I guess you're right," Rantaro said, "I didn't think about that."

"You didn't," Angie agreed, "So I had to say something drastic to make you realize that you were being kind of stupid, thinking that the Flashback Lights could be a problem. They definitely won't be."

"Well, they might be a small problem," Rantaro said, "But definitely not as big a problem as you were implying there. Thanks for shocking some sense into me."

"Mm, it's something I can do, I guess," Angie said, then sat up straight, staring down at her knees. With bruises stretching around from the undersides of her legs, they looked even worse, the scars bleeding into mottled black-and-blue. At least the more severe ones didn't look as weird as the slight green of the more minor pressure points, "I really don't know what I'm doing, Rantaro."

"Nobody does," Rantaro said, "If they say they do, then they're lying. Hey, do you want to borrow some pajamas again?"

"Yes please," Angie said, "Yours are really comfy, and I think I kind of need that after this day. Ugh, my head's still pounding..."

"Take some medicine for it," Rantaro said, "I put some in your backpack earlier, but I forgot to mention it."

"I was just at the infirmary again replacing Ouma's bandages, and I didn't even think of grabbing painkillers," Angie said with a sheepish chuckle, "Thanks for thinking of it. I probably should, or I'd never be able to get to sleep," She reached for her backpack and found that there was a bottle in the bottom of the bag, "So... When you did that, did you use the Flashback Light?"

"Huh?" Rantaro froze, "What do you mean?"

"The one in my bag, from the roof. Before I woke up, did you use it? You had to know it wasn't the one that I used on myself last night," Angie said, "If I were you, I would have been curious."

"I... To tell you the truth, yes," Rantaro said, "I used that Flashback Light, but if I told you the memories it gave me, you'd never believe me. I think it's better just to wait until everyone can see it at once. And truth be told, I don't know if it would be something that could be considered hopeful or despairing. Maybe it's both at once. I'm sure it'll tie in with the others anyway."

"Okay, if you say so," Angie said, "I'm sure I'd believe you, but since you're trusting my judgment, I'll trust yours. It's nice to be able to trust somebody, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Rantaro said, staring at her, then spoke again, voice soft and hesitant, "This might sound like something weird for me to ask you, but if I'm very careful about it, do you think that I could hug you?"

"If you're really very careful about it, sure," Angie said, standing up, "It's probably easier if we're standing up though, right?"

"Yeah, probably," Rantaro agreed, and also stood, then took a step forward. He very carefully wrapped his arms around her elbows, basically pinning them to her body, but it was a proper hug that still avoided contact with any of Angie's trouble areas. She was surprised at first, then bent her arms at the elbows as much as she could, pressing her palms against his back. He whispered, "Thank you, Angie."

"Thank you too," She said, though she wasn't sure why this meant so much to her. Maybe it was just that he was being so sensitive to her needs, but at the same time, she felt herself overcome with a wave of utter guilt and grief, "And I'm sorry. I told you not to get attached to me, you know. It's only going to end badly if you care about me... This much... I'm so sorry... And I made you promise something so unfair..."

"Angie," Rantaro said, letting go and stepping away to look her in the eyes, "Stop saying that. I'm prepared for whatever ends up happening. It's my mistake, not yours. I'm having trouble believing that caring about you could be a mistake, though. Caring about Maki wasn't a mistake, even with what happened to her. I honestly can't see how caring about someone could truly be a mistake. I wouldn't promise not to hate you, if I didn't think I could do it."

"You can say that," Angie said, "But it was a dumb thing for me to make you promise. If something happened that would make you hate me, a promise isn't going to change the way that you feel."

"I guess not," Rantaro said, turning to go, "But I just don't think you could do anything that would. Anyway, I'm going to get a shower, then we should get some sleep, right?"

"Yeah," Angie agreed, "Tomorrow, people will probably start asking about the videos-" She froze, then reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him, "Whose did you get? I got Ouma's most hated person, and that's why he let me in to talk to him."

"I have no idea who mine belongs to," Rantaro admitted, "I can't imagine it's yours, though, the person in the video seems to be some kind of doctor or scientist as far as I can tell. Your most hated person would be..."

"Yeah," Angie knew he was avoiding saying outright, the person that Angie hated most, and she confirmed that he was correct to assume. As it was, she thought, the only person she could really say she hated rather than disliked was _that man_. Even as she felt disdain towards other, it was nothing as strong as that.

"We'll deal with the videos when we get to that," Rantaro said, "I'm not looking forward to breakfast, but we should at least be rested."

\---

[MONOKUMA THEATRE]

Wow, what a day! Jeeze, I feel kinda weird watching all of these people.

It's almost like everyone here's even more entrenched in despair than me!

How is that even possible? I thought these were supposed to be Ultimate Talents, beacons of Hope!

Well... I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I just gotta know! Is there any hope left here in this Academy?

Or did I already crush it all?


	135. Daily Life: Day Ten (POV switch; Breakfast)

"Gooooood morning everyone! This is the deadline for having watched your videos!" Monokuma's voice poured out of the intercom, "And wow, believe it or not, everybody who received a video has watched it! Looks like I won't need to broadcast any of them. Okay, that's all! Have a ~wonderful~ day!"

Kaede groaned to hear it, then sat up in her sleeping bag. Tsumugi had managed to stay asleep, so Kaede decided that she'd just let her get some rest. After Kaede had come back following Tsumugi watching the video she'd received, they'd stayed up kind of late, just trying to come up with names for the brand-new constellations. Tsumugi didn't say anything to her about what video she got, but Kaede could only assume it wasn't hers.

She was pretty sure that whoever got hers would talk to her about it, after all. Her most-hated person... Was a bit of a strange one, it was different than what anyone would expect, but she knew that upon _seeing_ that person, Kaede would certainly be informed of it. No matter what that person had done since the last time Kaede saw them, whoever got the video would be overcome with curiosity.\

She was the first one to the Dining Hall, and her suspicions were confirmed as soon as she greeted Miu, who immediately turned and grabbed onto her arm, "Mistress Akamatsu! I need to tell you about the video that I received!"

"Yeah," Kaede said, "I thought I'd need to explain it, but... I can't say I was expecting I'd need to do it so soon, and for you, Iruma."

"You... Thought you'd need to explain it?" Miu asked, frowning, "What do you mean? I thought that, my video meant you were somebody else here's most hated person. I got really worried! So what are you talking about, Mistress Akamatsu? I thought this had to be you. There's even a Killing Game."

"...A Killing Game?" Kaede questioned, narrowing her eyes, "I don't... Know why that would be, but I assumed that whoever got my most hated person would be confused, because she looks just like me. She's my twin sister, after all. But what's that about a Killing Game?"

"It's hard to tell what's happening in the video, but that much seems clear. I saw Monokuma," Miu explained, looking down at the floor as she spoke, quietly, "How... Why is your twin sister your most hated person, Akamatsu?"

"Because she escaped," Kaede said simply, "She ran away from home and she got away before our parents were murdered. She kept in touch with me after she was gone, so I know that she left on purpose. But she stopped talking to me after I told her about what happened, after she left... So I ended up without anyone to ground me. We never got along before, either. So I became bitter. I don't know what you're on about a Killing Game, though."

"You hate her more than the person who killed your parents?" Miu asked.

"Yeah," Kaede said, "It's weird, isn't it? But the thing is, I know that the person who killed my parents got punished. My sister just left, and didn't have to deal with the things that I did. The last I'd heard from her, she was doing well on her own. I guess it is just jealousy, but. Most hated doesn't always mean a horrible, burning hatred. I just like other people more than her."

"I understand. Now that you say it was a twin, I can understand how it wasn't you, her life seemed different from what I know about you," Miu said, then frowned as she leaned against the awning between the Dining Hall and its kitchen, "Isn't it strange, though, that Monokuma was there? Do you think that she could have anything to do with this Killing Game?"

"I don't know," Kaede said, "I can't see how she would. And since we _are_ twins, and these are annual Killing Games, I can't see it meaning that she's been involved in one. As far as I can tell, the only people who are of a different age than the rest in a Killing Game are Ultimate Survivors. Since this is definitely my first Killing Game, this would have had to be her first too, and it's not."

"So do you think," Miu said, "That she could be the Mastermind? Or maybe, working with the Mastermind, since Monokuma did imply the Mastermind is among us?"

"It's..." Kaede trailed off, "Not like I couldn't see her doing that, if she had something to gain from it. She was always really selfish. I just don't know what it could be that she was offered to gain. Maybe just a lot of money, though... I guess if I really think about it, then despair isn't exactly something out of her wheelhouse."

"...Wait, what do you mean?" Miu asked, frowning, "You mean, you think it's actually possible that your sister could be helping the Mastermind? The person who put us here, who orchestrated this Killing Game?"

"Well, it's possible, yeah," Kaede said, holding her hands in close to herself, "The reason why... I don't know, it seems like there's a really good reason, but right now I can't remember it. It's just out of my reach. As if... It's one of the things that I forgot when I came to this academy."

"I see," Miu said, then sighed as she went back to work on breakfast, "So we're just left more confused than we were before, huh? Thanks for telling me about your sister though. I was really scared that somebody hated you. If you became a victim... Then there's no way we'd be able to find your killer. We need your Ultimate Detective skills to succeed."

"No, don't say that," Kaede said, "You don't _need_ me. If you think that way, then you really won't be able to figure it out without me, but if you believe in yourselves, I know you can. Really, it's everyone else who solves the case. I just put it all together."

"...If you say so," Miu mumbled, "But I hope that never needs to be proved."


	136. Daily Life: Day Ten (Breakfast)

Kaede finished talking to Miu, then went to go sit down in her usual seat as other people started to file into the Dining Hall. Angie arrived with Rantaro, and she looked a little bit off, but nothing that would actually raise suspicions. Now that the bruises were a day old, Angie was able to hide them with the same concealer she used on her knees. Rantaro was the only one there who'd know that she hurt herself the previous day.

When Tenko sat down, she immediately pulled out her Monopad and held it up above her head, "Okay. I need to know if I have any of you guys' video, because I definitely want to show it to whoever it belongs to. The person in it actually gets comeuppance, so I think they'd want to see it. It's a woman in a black suit with a green tie, probably working for Future Foundation by the looks of it. That mean anything to anyone?"

"Mm, nope," Angie said, tapping her chin, "I don't have anything against any particular Future Foundation members, anyway. I guess except for Idabashi, but even so, I don't have a ton against him anymore. He paid the price for what he did..."

"Oh, right," Kaede spoke up, "I'll share my video too. An older businessman who seems to have an affinity for suits that are gray. Anyone for that?"

"Hm..." Rantaro mumbled, tapping the table, "Should we really be doing this? What if people don't want to share what they got, or don't want to be associated with the videos of the type of person that they'd hate most? These are supposed to be motives from Monokuma, after all. Something about them might spur us to commit murder. I know it said that we'd be motivated by wanting to find out the truth, but I think it's also possible that making these associations between who we are and the people that we hate..."

"...That's a good point," Kaede muttered, returning her Monopad to her bag, "I just don't want to withhold information if anyone wants it. Especially since I already found out about my own most hated person. It would only be fair for me to share my video with its owner, if they wanted to see it."

"Well, it doesn't sound like that's one of us anyway," Angie said, "I mean, we'd speak up! So it must belong to someone different. Maybe Gokuhara, or Hoshi?"

"That's a good point," Tenko muttered, also putting her Monopad away, "Gokuhara might have still gotten a video sent to him, and had a video relating to him sent to one of us. I guess there's no way to figure out what his would be, though..."

"Weren't you pretty close to him, Chabashira?" Kaede asked, "Did he ever say anything to you about the type of person that he would hate?"

"No," Tenko said, shaking her head, "We didn't exactly have many conversations. We mostly just sparred with each other, before he left. It was a really simple friendship," She explained, then brought a hand up to her face and sighed, "Believe me, I'm glad that he got out, but... I miss him. You're all total wimps who can't even help me stay in shape or anything. I guess it's a good thing my lab includes an obstacle course, so I won't get sedentary or anything, but..."

"Hey, Chabashira," Angie got her attention, "It's okay. Don't worry about it! He's safe now, and you'll see him again soon, I know it! Because this Killing Game, it's got to be almost over."

"Why just say it's got to be almost over?" Tenko questioned, "Couldn't you just try and find the song that ends it early? Monokuma's other letters told the truth, so yours must be too. You could end it."

"I wouldn't even know where to begin!" Angie complained, "Monokuma said I might be able to find a hint later though, and it's later, and I've been looking all over for it! That's the best that I can do..."

"Hey," Kaede interrupted, "Let's not fight. Even if the letter's telling the truth, Monokuma wouldn't make something like that easy. It wouldn't want the game to end early."

"...I guess you're right," Tenko muttered, leaning her head against her hand, "Whatever. Yonaga, you talk to Ouma last night, or did you forget?"

"I did it, I didn't forget," Angie said, "He's doing... Okay. He was in Saihara's lab, and he isn't going to hurt himself or anything, so that's kind of the best that we can hope for in this situation. He's only staying in there for a little while longer, too. He said he'll probably rejoin us soon. Tomorrow morning at the latest. So you'll see him for yourself. He's just taking some time to get his thoughts together, you know?"

"I'm glad to hear it," Kaede said, "I was worried what his reaction would be, with Saihara... I mean, Tsumugi reacted worse than he did."

"He's a mess," Angie said, "But he's going to be okay. That much, I can vouch for. He won't give up on us. He might be a little different than you remember, when you see him again, though."

"I would be more surprised if he was the same," Tenko said, "Poor kid's lost a lot."

"We all have," Rantaro said, "But... Not quite like him."

"Yeah," Miu said, arriving to the table, "Even though I liked Maki, it wasn't as if we were actually together, unlike those two... And with something he said to me, I kind of got the impression that it was kind of a big deal for him to trust Saihara."

"Mm, yeah," Angie agreed, folding her hands on the table in front of herself, "But, you know, I bet Ouma's getting really upset with us, for making him sneeze so much! We should really stop talking about him behind his back."

"...Good point," Tenko said, then looked around, "Uh, anyway... I guess if we aren't going to be sharing out motive videos, then there's not actually anything to dicuss right now. Nothing important."

"What about something fun instead?" Angie offered, "Why don't... I put on a concert?"


	137. Daily Life: Day Ten (Discussing a Concert)

"A concert?" Kaede asked, wondering if that was actually a good idea. The last time that they'd planned a big event, Kokichi's magic show, it hadn't exactly turned out great. Everyone enjoyed it, sure, but Kaito died, and that was kind of a big damper on the situation, "Are you sure about that, Yonaga? I mean..."

"We all know what happened with Ouma's magic show, Kaede," Angie said, seeming to put extra emphasis on using her first name as she glared at her, "But that doesn't mean we should completely stop trying to have fun. Besides, I won't let anything like that happen, because I won't say when it's going to happen or anything. I'll just practice for a while, and then I'll say at breakfast, hey, time to come to my concert. Nothing can go wrong if nobody knows what to plan for, right? Because it could be tomorrow, or it could be a whole week from now. Nobody knows!"

"You say that, but..." Kaede trailed off, then shook her head with a sigh, "No, you're right. We can't be afraid to have a good time just because something went wrong before. We need to be able to enjoy ourselves without being afraid all the time. And... That's actually pretty clever, not letting us know when it's going to happen. It'd be hard to blackmail somebody to do something before the concert when we don't even know when the concert is going to be, after all."

Angie nodded, "Everyone's welcome, of course. Except for Shirogane. But you don't all need to come either, it's up to you. So if Hoshi wants to keep on guarding his lab instead of coming, then that's fine too."

"That's nice of you," Kaede said, ignoring the fact that Tsumugi wouldn't be welcome. Of course she wouldn't be, why would Kaede even think for a second that she would? She was a criminal and a prisoner. A prison didn't make sense if they were just going to let her out of it anyway. Though, she supposed that was the risk of having a prison cell that anyone but Tsumugi was capable of opening. If anyone wanted to let Tsumugi out, it wasn't like it would be difficult.

"So what's everybody's plans for today?" Miu asked, changing the topic with the magic of small talk. Somehow, coming from her, small talk actually seemed a little bit more worth having. She had to have been trained in the art of conversation to be the Ultimate Maid, though, so that wasn't shocking.

"I'm going to practice for my concert," Angie said, then looked to Rantaro, "And Rantaro, you'll help me, right?"

"Of course," He said with a nod, "I wasn't planning to do anything else today."

"I was going to take a look in the escape tunnel for myself," Kaede noted, "Just to see what's down there, now that the traps are disabled. No offense, Chabashira, but there might be something you missed that I may be able to pick up on."

"That's a good idea," Tenko said, "We're both observant, but we notice different things. There could definitely be something I didn't notice. I'm going to use the obstacle course in my lab... I dunno what else I'll do, but I'll definitely do that. If anyone wants to join me, you can, but it might be a little difficult."

"Sounds fun," Miu said, smirking, "I'll give it a shot. I might surprise you, you know."

"Heh, alright," Tenko smirked right back, crossing her arms over her chest, "I guess that I never considered that you might be a bodyguard too. Then again, the Ultimate Maid would have to be able to perform the duties of an entire staff, huh?"

"You got me," Miu said with a small giggle, holding a hand against her collarbone, "Though, I've never tried an obstacle course before, let alone one that was designed for the Ultimate Anthropologist, so I guess we'll see what happens, right?"

"Yeah," Tenko confirmed with a nod, then turned back to the others, "Akamatsu, you should join us too, after you investigate. I think it'd be funny."

"It probably would be pretty funny to see me fail," Kaede said, "So, no thanks. I'd probably end up breaking my leg or something, and then where would we be? Ouma's already gotten a permanent wound, do you really want another person to be out of commission? What if something happened and we needed to fight Monokuma?"

"That sounds like a pretty good idea actually," Miu said, tapping her chin, "Hm, but it wouldn't accomplish anything, would it? Monokuma's already said that it's not the one who's actually in charge of this whole thing, I bet if it got destroyed it'd just be replaced, and then we'd be in hot water."

"If it attacked us first, though," Kaede said, "Then we want to be able to stand a fighting chance, right? We have no idea what that thing might do now. Maybe if none of us kill each other, it'll decide to kill us itself. It obviously does want us dead, after all."

"Urgh," Tenko scoffed, leaning against the table, "I wish we didn't have to worry about this bullshit, you know? It'd be so great, if we could just ignore that bear and focus on our own problems. You know, if not for people dying, these motives might've helped us to start actually working through our baggage..."

"What do you mean?" Rantaro asked, "The motives are just exposing our secrets. Some of us don't want that to happen."

"I mean," Tenko explained, "Having our secrets exposed to everybody, or even just to one person like this current motive... A really hard part about moving on from bad shit happening is admitting it to other people, besides yourself. And I think that these motives forcing us to do that would actually help us, if it weren't in the context of a Killing Game. People like us can support each other, since we understand what each other's been through better than most people. If we weren't being encouraged to kill, then we could actually be getting better."

"Instead, it's just steps backward," Kaede sighed, staring down at the table, "Because it's hard to recover from our pasts when we keep getting new things to be messed up by... I can't focus on getting over my parents' deaths when I'm grieving my friends. It's the same for all of us, isn't it?"

"Oh..." Angie trailed off, "And here I thought, I was starting to get better, but you're right. I just started making a tiny bit of progress, but somebody else dying could be a setback... Especially if it's somebody that I'm close to."

"Even so..." Rantaro trailed off, "Don't you think it's possible to improve, even in this situation?"

"I mean, we can try," Kaede said, "It would just... be better if people weren't dying, is what I mean."

"Of course it would," Angie said, "Everything's better if people aren't dying. But if it's happening anyway, we just have to make the most of the situation."


	138. An Interlude of Nonsense That Sort of Sounds Like A Real Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's take a break from the story, sit back, and enjoy what happens when every chapter up till now was fed into the same predictive text tool that made "Harry Potter and The Portrait Of What Appeared To Be A Large Pile Of Ash".

[THIS CHAPTER IS A JOKE AND IS NON-CANON]

The ultimate cosplayer of the ultimate academy is dead. Korekiyo only had death for her now. Shuichi approached iruma and asked " that's just a technicality, right? " 

maki couldn't truly be worth eating food. The ultimate robot back to the trash can go. The first killing game ever experienced. " you know what i found in kaede's drink? " kokichi questioned as he started to read textbooks. The thing disappeared from the warehouse to check if he knew that you should be killed. " i can't even get her a gingerale with the information i know. " 

shuichi narrowed his eyes and climbed down from the table. " oh yeah the same thing as he said, " shuichi said with a respectable voice. Shuichi just gave him a good long look and kaede found this big guy in the basement... 

" ah... Thank you for your concerns, " kaede said with a nod alongside death, " shuichi asked me to refuse my room... But it's a good plan. " 

once everyone who hasn't won the killing game is going along with children's properties, the ultimate supreme leader implies you don't know about my own age. He was not very popular. Shuichi found himself blushing as the ultimate magician implies a little bit more than art. Everyone else began to make up a way to finish the killing game, but that was the only possible motive for the time of death. Nothing else was in the room. Entering a boy, saihara joined the conversation while ryoma stayed behind to see what amami is going to do. 

" i can tell the japanese somehow had a malevolent realization of the murder, " tsumugi noted, " but i think maybe if you want him to shut up, shinguji killed himself and plotted to do something else. " 

shuichi couldn't see. " you know it was easy for me to spread my findings with the statement which was adjacent to the gym... " 

( please feel like it's a good person. )

" kaede took a peek at the bottom of the body, " tenko hissed, pointing straight at monokuma as she did, " kaede grabbed his face to make it all better. She took off her own lips... " 

once shuichi got to see, he noticed that kaede needed more than two reasons to make sure that iruma would not clean a good person in case you think that happened. " kaede akamatsu is a little disappointed! " shuichi exclaimed as he reached one of the classic moments of weakness... " kiibo said that he would have suffered the same thing as yumeno... Overdo it to be human. " 

kaede opened the sliding door of the murder which kicked the ladder away again... Monokuma was just trying too hard to be human and failing. " i mean to tell somebody that was all your future as soon as monokuma appeared! That's why you want him to be a chair. " 

shuichi couldn't even read about this... No way anybody else would be sixteen people. " kaede was still a good person, " shuichi explained, " but since tojo and yumeno received smaller antidotes and the culprit began to stream it, everyone else could probably run into the fishbowl from my lab. " 

" hey bastards the same thing is just unforgivable, " maki interrupted summarily, " i just wish i could have been used for teaching classes... " 

" oh wow " kaede mumbled, " maki is dead... But why? That's like we can figure all of us probably thought maybe angie was a lie. I'm sure everything is already lost. " 

maki couldn't be found by kokichi. The ultimate robot bear who wants enough food for the night began hatching a plan to get along with momota. Enjoy your future for the time of death is the time they were all ultimates. There seemed to be only a bit of death and shuichi was surprised. Korekiyo shinguji probably didn't want to play. " if i went to see akamatsu... " shuichi clutched his chest, " i suppose... I might be killed for revenge. " 

shuichi noticed that kaede was going to let herself break down in the middle of the killing game... And perish. " you can sleep off the rest of the beverages, " kokichi announced in the middle of the beverages. 

" i know what we are, " shuichi said, looking miserable, " you keep saying that you forgot about the body warmth. It doesn't like a boy to make us participate in front specific process. " 

" oh well... " kokichi teased, " i thought you need body warmth for something like this. " 

shuichi was shocked to see twelve hundred friends with someone who thinks that he was crying. There were six people who weren't accounted for that time showering and getting caught up in discussion... " tsumugi gave me some humans for the time being so i don't know what happened to the bottle of poison. " 

kaede shrugged then turned and glared at the boys who just happened. " you guys would never be considered ultimate people, " kaede mumbled.. 

Management management and the culprit began to feel suicide for a moment... How was the lightbulb that kaede needed any help getting dressed? It's very innovative. Shuichi approached the newcomer of the killing game to do something to her mouth with a pancake... And kaede froze in place. Lucky people who weren't conscious for something about a huge man thing. High school is a blessing from atua. 

" what sort of torture was going to happen if he wouldn't imagine somebody else? " kokichi asked so that he could trust shuichi saihara: water ( assorted non the dining hall closed )

" what possible things wouldn't be? " kaede explained with a peculiar darkness behind her eyes. 

" oh. Shuichi was afraid, " kokichi spoke over the bear. 

Management was just having some humans to keep.

[THIS CHAPTER IS A JOKE AND IS NON-CANON]


	139. Daily Life: Day Ten (Escape Tunnel)

Kaede went outside, brought Tsumugi breakfast, then circled around to the boiler room. She stood in front of the door, and took a deep breath before she opened it and stepped inside. Talking to Tenko in here yesterday was less intimidating than actually going down there again. Kaede had never been claustrophobic before, but getting trapped under the boiler room might have given her that fear. She was mad at herself for that fact, because it seemed like all she was doing was getting worse.

She'd said she could work with Tsumugi on getting better, but it was hard. Her lack of a sense of time and her cruel, runaway twin sister had been enough to qualify her as a Tragic Ultimate, even before her parents died and she spent a year in a fugue state. And now she was claustrophobic too? That was getting worse, not getting better. With everything she had to deal with, Kaede had been trying not to think about Keiko while she was here, but with these motive videos, she couldn't help but let thoughts of her twin invade her mind. She was glad Keiko wasn't here; Even if she couldn't put her finger on why exactly she thought that it made sense if Keiko cooperated in a Killing Game, it was an understatement when Kaede said they'd never got along.

Keiko probably wouldn't hesitate to seal Kaede underground, just for the Hell of it. Not to get away with a murder. Just cause she thought it would be funny. But for that same reason, Kaede thought that there was no way Keiko was behind this Killing Game. Involved, maybe, but she was a petty person, and this was obviously on a large scale, and well-planned. Keiko Akamatsu was a bully, not a villain. Kaede tried to put her out of her mind, though, and focus on the situation at hand. Going back to the place that she thought she was going to die. That definitely sounded unpleasant when she put it to words like that, but it _was_ unpleasant for her. This was the first time she'd had to face any of her fears head-on, so she wasn't used to bravery. She approached the ladder and grabbed the top rung, then started to climb down into the deep pit beneath the boiler room.

The first thing Kaede noticed when she reached the bottom of the ladder was that it was brighter than before. The only visible light source remained the light that hung a few feet from the entrance to the escape tunnel, but somehow the entire room was flooded with light. A hidden light source, somehow? Kaede furrowed her brow and started to wander around the room, searching for a reason for the overwhelming brightness. It took a while, but she eventually discovered that there were light panels behind a layer of drywall thick enough to hide the lights if she didn't look closely, but thin enough that the light came right through into every corner of this extra-deep basement. Would she have been less frightened if it had been this bright before? Probably not. Kaede had never been afraid of the dark, and that didn't change at all.

With the mystery of the light source solved, Kaede turned her attention to the escape tunnel, and climbed through its entrance. Despite Tenko's discovery that the traps had all been disabled, Kaede was very cautious. She didn't think Tenko lied to her; The traps could have been reactivated since then, was all. Kaede reached into her bag and retrieved a bit of trash she'd held onto from breakfast. She tossed it out into the tunnel, and nothing happened. Holding her arms in close to herself, Kaede stepped forward gingerly. Still nothing. She kept on going, and going, until she reached the end of where the traps had once been.

It was exactly as Tenko described it. A huge door with an electric field across it, and a control panel with a note taped to it, clearly written by Monokuma, proclaiming that the traps had been navigated and were now disabled. Kaede pulled the note off the panel and stuffed it into her bag, then tried to see if she could figure out the code. Looking at it, the keypad looked as if it had never once been used. Even when she sprinkled some flour on the keys and adjusted her angle, she couldn't find any hint of use at all. She tried to use her Monopad for light, too. Strangely enough, she hadn't found any flashlights in the warehouse, leaving her to wonder how Angie actually ended up with hers. Then again, Angie was a mystery wrapped in an enigma sometimes, so Kaede didn't think too hard about it.

If she asked, Angie would probably either say it was the only one in the warehouse, or it was a gift from Atua. Either of those responses didn't help Kaede at all, so she'd just leave it to her own imagination. She had to do her due diligence, sure, but it wasn't that important in this case. She had other things to worry about. Without any signs of use on the keypad, Kaede decided to try guessing numbers that might be the code to get the door open. If Gonta had already left, then maybe the rest of them could still get out this way. Nobody cared enough about escape to kill for the sake of getting out of the academy, but they'd still be glad to get out of the Killing Game, right?

It was a five-number passcode, which was a bit unusual, and meant it would be more difficult to crack than one that was only four numbers. Still, she had a few ideas. Pulling up the student profiles on her Monopad, she tried each student's birthday in whatever form would fit. Usually this meant including one or two digits from the birth year, which she assumed to be the same as her own for everybody but Ryoma, whose birth year she modified. None of them worked, of course. It wouldn't be that easy, and if anyone's birthday was going to mean anything here, it would be the Mastermind. And overlooking a telltale clue like that would be an incredibly incompetent move. Kaede was certain the Mastermind was smarter than that at least. She kept trying different combinations. Something compelled her to try 11037, for some reason. Important words, and names, fed through ciphers she knew that would convert them to numbers. Still nothing.

It seemed she had no choice but to give up on this, for now.


	140. Daily Life: Day Ten (Introspect)

Defeated, Kaede made her way back through the escape tunnel, then up the ladder. She hadn't discovered anything new, and she had no more ideas of that the code could be to get that door open. Since she didn't even know if there was a working code, it wasn't like she ought to waste her time on it any longer. Instead, she decided to take Tenko up on that invitation to try the obstacle course, even though she was well aware that she wouldn't do very well and would probably just make a fool of herself.

She went all the way upstairs, to the top floor, then took one more look at the shattered window at the end of the hallway and shook her head with a sigh. Angie... Kaede knew that she didn't have the best grip on her emotions and reality herself at the moment, but Angie's actions seemed a little bit extreme. Going onto the roof just to get a flashback light that was probably just as depressing as the one they found in Korekiyo's lab, or the one that she'd apparently taken from Miu? It didn't seem like she was really thinking through her decisions. Kaede couldn't help but feel worry for her sake. Though, maybe Angie did have a point. This was just the sort of thing that Kaede should be doing; How had the ultimate pianist managed to take over investigating the nature of the Academy?

That wasn't a real hangup, though. Kaede should have cared more than she did about the integrity of her talent, but really, she felt kind of relieved that somebody else was taking the burden away from her, even if that left her concerned for that person's well-being. Investigating could be dangerous, and she should know. She'd blacked out while investigating once! Though, that _was_ in part the result of her own clumsiness, and another part Kokichi not realizing that she might need to be guided more carefully through the crawlspace her first time through it. She wondered if Kokichi would talk to her if she went to see him herself... Though, Angie had probably already used up whatever tokens were on the board to get him to cooperate, so Kaede didn't have much of a shot now that Angie already succeeded once. And if Kokichi kept his word of returning at breakfast the following day, at the latest, Kaede would just be able to talk to him then.

She hoped that he would do that. It wasn't like she'd ever gotten particularly close to Kokichi, but she remembered in Korekiyo's lab. When he let her see him be vulnerable. He apologized for it at the time, but Kaede had come to realize why he said that to her. Why he told her how scared he was; He'd seen her unconscious, so he had to show her that he could be vulnerable too. It did ground her, in a way.

The guy could read a crowd, that was part of his talent. And Kaede was coming to realize that he knew how to use both truth and lies; He understood when to use the truth to manipulate others, and Kaede counted herself lucky that he'd only used it to manipulate her for the sake of sparing her emotions, not harming her. She could just hope that he showed the same mercy to everyone else.

The only person she was certain that he never tried to manipulate one way or another was Shuichi. She could tell that Kokichi was genuine and nothing else when it came to him, that nothing he said to Shuichi was ever meant to make sure that he would stay. He was upfront at times where it wouldn't have been at all comforting to hear the truth about him, and Kaede may not have known those times firsthand but she could tell when she looked at both of them. As a detective, she should have at least been able to see that.

And... Even as she could see that Kokichi had done everything in his power to avoid causing any problems for Shuichi, of course she could tell that Tsumugi wasn't doing the same for her. She wasn't doing the same for Tsumugi either, though. Right now, they weren't good for each other, she knew that. But if they both became better people, then they'd be better for each other too, she was sure about that. The logic that their relationship was far from perfect or even especially good as relationships go wasn't enough to overcome her feelings. She wanted to make it work.

But Kaede put that out of her head, as she arrived at Tenko's lab. She knocked on the wall next to the door, as she'd been instructed, then waited. She didn't know exactly how long it was, of course, but she was pretty sure there was at least a little bit of time which passed before Tenko opened up the heavy door, "Akamatsu? I thought that you decided not to come here after all."

"I thought so too," Kaede said, shrugging, "But then I changed my mind. I thought that, well, there's really no harm in humiliating myself a little bit among friends. I didn't find anything worthwhile down in the escape tunnel. Not even the slightest sign of use on the keypad, and I tried out a bunch of combinations, but none of them worked. I tried different variations on everybody's birth dates, some random numbers... I even put some words into a few number ciphers to see if that would be it."

"That's a pain," Tenko said, "Well, it's not like they'd make it easy for us to figure out or anything. Monokuma wouldn't want us all to escape like that. It'd be anticlimactic, wouldn't it?"

"What's that matter?" Kaede asked, frowning.

"Eh," Tenko glanced away from her, "Well, I got this theory. But most of my theories turn out to be pretty dumb, don't they? So just... Come in and join us. Iruma's pretty impressive. Ah, you'll probably want to borrow some shorts too, right, Akamatsu?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Kaede said, pretending like she hadn't been secretly hoping that Miu was doing the obstacle course in her usual attire. Just because she was taken didn't mean she couldn't look... But she guessed it made sense to wear more fitting athletic attire. She stepped inside and followed Tenko to a set of lockers that contained just that.


	141. Daily Life: Day Ten (POV Switch; Sitting Together)

Angie was trying her best, even though it seemed to be a bit annoying to Rantaro. She took up her position on the piano bench, and for a good hour she was just practicing her part to Chopsticks. Just the one part, she needed to get her part, the slightly more complicated bit, down. It sounded pretty weird without the other half, but she would never be able to do it without first getting it down if she was busy grappling with the stress of having somebody else on the bench with her. Once she was confident, though, she needed Rantaro's help for real.

She sat on the bench, not facing the piano, and patted the spot next to herself, "Rantaro. Could you just... Sit next to me, not facing the piano or anything? I think that's a good first step to take."

"Right," Rantaro said, setting his Monopad down on the pew he'd been sitting at as he stood. At least he was able to keep himself occupied. He approached her, then stood in front of her, hesitating, "Should I be prepared for you to punch me, or something, when I sit down?"

"No," Angie said, "That wouldn't happen. More likely I'd just panic and freeze up, or fall off the bench or something... I'll only hurt myself. It'll be boring for you, stressful for me, but by the time that we're done I might actually be kind of a functional human being."

"That sounds like a pretty good plan," Rantaro noted, then stepped to the side and turned around, sitting next to her. She took a deep breath, not looking at him. She was tense, even just with this much, but she was expecting this. She knew that it would be baby steps, and that not one of those baby steps would be easy or comfortable for her.

"Okay..." She breathed, clenching and unclenching her fists in her lap as she tried to process it. The sensation of having someone next to her, not touching at all, just feeling their presence, was something that luckily didn't become horrible for her in everyday situations. But that feeling of presence coupled with the unique feeling of the piano bench beneath her thighs was different. It was familiar in the worst way. Rantaro was not that man. Rantaro was nothing like that man. Angie probably knew even more than Rantaro himself just how different he was from that man.

Maybe that was why she was able to feel comfortable around him the way she did. Angie had thought, upon arriving to the Killing Game, that she would probably be a lesbian. That wasn't something that she gave much thought to, it was just something that occurred to her the moment she realized she was free of that man. That any man would be too much like him for her comfort, but she was wrong to think that.

Her early crushes dissipated easily. Tenko didn't respect personal space enough, Kirumi was hardly her own person and more of a rather friendly tumor on the side of Kiibo. Kaede and Tsumugi both revealed darker sides that Angie couldn't help but feel disdain for, and they were with each other anyway. Then there was Rantaro. 'The person she liked'. There was something strange about a guy like him. Something really good.

Angie relaxed, spread out the fingers on her right hand, then reached out and grabbed Rantaro's hand in her own. This was okay. This was different from her past. It would take a lot of work for her to be okay, facing the other direction. Even more work for her to let his hands even touch the keys when he was next to her, but with this baby step, and her thoughts, Angie knew that as long as it took, it was going to _happen_. That reassured her. She didn't want to die having never truly played one of the easiest piano melodies out there. She was the Ultimate Pianist, but to actually have that title for herself, she needed to overcome this obstacle.

"Angie?" Rantaro spoke after quite some time, rubbing his thumb along her knuckles with that feather-light gentle touch, whispering so as not to startle her. She wasn't surprised, "When do you think you'll have the concert? Will it be after you're able to play Chopsticks?"

"Probably not," Angie said, "If I used that measure, then you'd know when it was going to happen. I can't risk letting anybody know, you know? Maki had her flaws, as a robot who could be forced to do something like kill without wanting to, but anyone's susceptible to blackmail, even if I trust you. Even I... Can't know what's going to happen in this Killing Game."

"It's too complicated for Atua?" Rantaro asked.

"Basically," Angie said, sighing as she mumbled an admission, "Lately... Well, ever since Saihara died, I've been hearing Atua's voice less and less. He was able to tell me, kind of, to expect Shinguji's death. And either Yumeno's or Tojo's, too. And Momota's. And Maki's. Idabashi's also, but that's it. Atua can predict things that make some level of sense. Saihara's death didn't make any sense. And now He barely tells me anything at all."

"Why did you never say anything?" Rantaro asked.

"Cause," Angie said, "Would you believe me? Would anybody? And to anyone who doesn't believe in Atua, the fact that I can say that I was warned about those deaths makes me seem heartless. But it wasn't anything obvious. They were little signs. Subtle signs. I only understood what they meant after I found out someone died. There were none for Saihara, though. Nothing to get in my subconscious and make it less surprising. And now there's no more."

"Do you think that means the Killing Game is already over? That nobody else will die?" Rantaro offered an optimistic solution.

"No," Angie said, "I think it means that it's just totally out of my purview. No more death would make any sense here. Atua can't imagine any more murders could happen between us, but they will. The Killing Game isn't over yet. So I'll just be stuck, being completely shocked. I'm scared. What if you were killed, Rantaro? I didn't want us to get close, you know. I don't wanna be hurt if you die. I don't want you to be hurt... If I die. That too, maybe Atua can't predict anything else because I die next. And I won't be around to see any other deaths."

"It's scary," Rantaro said, "But I want to believe in the best. That we'll be okay."

"I just feel like..." Angie groaned, letting go of Rantaro's hand to bring both to cover her face, "It's all so far out of my control... And I don't like it. Even if I got hurt by one person, I had a lot of influence over my island. I'm used to being in charge but now... This is so beyond me."


	142. Daily Life: Day Ten (Escape Tunnel Part 2)

Angie and Rantaro split up after lunchtime, because there was only so much that could be done in one sitting. He went to tinker with something down in his lab, leaving Angie alone again. She ate a hearty lunch down in the dining hall, then upon returning to her lab she just practiced by herself for a few more hours, but she didn't intend on going to dinner. She didn't feel up to socializing with everybody all at once again. The concealing makeup was wearing off in some places, and she'd rather avoid being seen than spend half an hour reapplying.

 

And it was a nice respite to hide from everyone for a little while, last night, she decided. Besides, she had something that she wanted to check out for herself, and it was best that she did it secretly. Not because she was planning to do anything bad, of course not. She just didn't want too many people to realize the sheer number of Flashback Lights she was collecting. Even though she had only the best intentions in withholding them, the others might not see it that way. They might accuse her of hiding important information from them, when really, she was just postponing it.

 

Angie seriously doubted that the Flashback Light Monokuma said was in the Escape Tunnel would still be there. Gonta may have taken it with him when he left, or Tenko took it when she found the note explaining why the traps were disabled, or Kaede found it earlier that day. Angie knew it was probably a fruitless effort to even check, but just because something was unlikely, that never stopped her before. She was like a train with a bulldozer taped to the front of it. She plowed through any obstacles in her path, and she did it _fast_.

 

Angie went to the boiler room, managing not to be spotted on the way, probably because, well, everybody else was either at dinner or off hiding in Ultimate Labs as they did. She stood next to the bloodstained manhole cover, in front of the ladder down. Nobody thought to cover it up again. And the blood hadn't been cleaned from the cover. That was weird. All the other blood was cleaned up. Wasn't it? All the other blood? Angie hesitated. No, maybe not. There was probably still blood in Kokichi's room. It was probably only real crime scenes that got cleaned up following the trials.

 

 _Lazy_ , she thought to herself as she tapped the bloody cover with the side of her foot. It was lazy, wasn't it? Monokuma. Monokuma was such a lazy little bastard, as it so happily called its students. Angie couldn't say she ever expected to be in this position. This was not how she thought her life would go. Not even how she thought she'd end up after all the twists and turns that her life took.

 

She stepped to the ladder, and began to climb down it. One rung at a time. Down, into a bright room deep underground. So bright. She wondered why it was. Kaede and Tenko had made clear it had been horribly dark during their time trapped down here, so it must have changed since then. Angie didn't doubt their testimonies.

 

Her feet hit the ground, and as soon as they did, she broke into a sprint down the escape tunnel, at full speed. She knew the traps were disabled, but she didn't want to take her chances by being too slow to get through the tunnel. Monokuma might decide she was being too nosy, meddling too much, and reactivating the traps when she was halfway through would be a great way to get rid of her. Though that wouldn't really be letting the Killing Game run its course if she was disposed of like that. Not in the traditional manner.

 

Angie stopped to catch her breath, doubling over as she tried to get enough air into her lungs after her intense sprint. This was not the sort of thing that she excelled at, or that she was even very competent at, at all. Too much physical activity these past few days, that was for sure. Once she could breathe easy again, she straightened up and approached the panel. The note was gone.

 

Kaede probably took it. That seemed like something she would do. No matter, Angie didn't need the note. What she needed was the control panel. It looked like Kaede had tried entering random and not-so-random numbers, probably. Kaede likely would have thought through all sorts of options for what the code could be. Birthdays. Important words put through number ciphers. At least, that's what Angie thought someone like her would try. Angie would think simpler, because she was simpler. Sometimes it was a simple solution.

 

Not often, but sure, sometimes. Sometimes the most simple solution, the kind that a girl like Angie would think up, could actually be the correct answer. And just as she was wondering what the code could be, it came to her, like a flash of inspiration from Atua. She lifted her finger and pressed the numbers on the keypad with determination. 26443, she tried. Her first option, her first attempt, and as soon as she hit enter, there was a chime.

 

Whoever made this panel were idiots, she thought. Or maybe they were smart enough to pick something that someone smart wouldn't think of, but Angie had figured it out. Then again, she supposed that there were always things she knew that other people didn't. And though Atua's voice didn't tell her to try that number, he very well could have planted the idea in her head. The confirmation chime faded out, and there was a loud, mechanical noise. Angie looked to the door to see that it was moving, lifting right up from where it met the floor.

 

The electrical field didn't discharge, but the door opened up, all the way. Angie watched as it revealed behind it... Nothing of consequence. A small room, that was all. A dead end, and written on the wall in sloppy paint, "This Flashback Light will show you the only escape that awaits you."

 

There was no light there. Someone already had it. Probably already used it.

 

That someone...

 

Where the Hell was he?


	143. Daily Life: Day Ten (Introspect Part 2)

Angie walked back out of the escape tunnel, heart heavy with her discovery. That discovery... There was no exit from the school at the end of the escape tunnel. There was no way that Gonta had gotten out. Angie didn't blame Tenko for assuming that he had. For the first time in a while, she couldn't blame anybody for what happened. So if Gonta hadn't escaped, then where had he gone? Where could he have gone?

Tenko went looking for him all over the place, Angie knew that. And Angie herself had gone to the roof, the one place that would have seemed implausible for him to be. It didn't make sense that he wouldn't have escaped, because obviously somebody would have found him by now if he was still in the Ultimate Academy. Was there some part of the school where nobody had been able to go before, that Gonta somehow discovered?

Angie had been inside both of the sealed labs that were at all accessible... But, could Kirumi's lab have been somehow accessed before Monokuma said that it would be? Angie thought that a bit unlikely. The fifth floor of the Academy was the highest one, after all. Angie had proved that. She had no idea where Kirumi's lab was going to be built, if it was at all at this rate, but as far as she could tell, it didn't yet exist anywhere. Gonta couldn't have gotten into it, for sure. She wished that she wasn't the one to find this out. She wished that she didn't need to hold onto this information. She already had enough on her plate. Plenty of secrets to hold onto, she didn't need to add anything else to that.

If there was one thing Angie was certain of, it was that she shouldn't be the one who was making all of these discoveries. These discoveries weren't her role at all, they were supposed to be Kaede's. The Ultimate Detective failed to show enough curiosity when it came to the state of the Ultimate Academy. Wasn't that what an Ultimate Detective was supposed to do, in a Killing Game? Certainly, if one was present, then the role of investigation in the final hour shouldn't have fallen to somebody else, let alone a pianist. Let alone Angie.

She found herself wondering for the first time, the same thing that everyone else had probably thought when the Killing Game began; _why me?_

Even as she wondered it, though, she knew the answer. It was her because it wasn't anybody else. It was her because this Killing Game was going off the rails, and she was the only one left who still had enough sense about her to do it. The Killing Game had to end. She had to figure out the song to end it, that was what the others all thought about her. It couldn't end until they knew everything there was to know, though. Well, maybe not everything, but everything that could be discovered from the inside.

A Killing Game which ended before its participants had any idea about why they were participating in it, or why it happened in the first place, was a pretty awful one. Angie could gather that much from the memories that she'd gotten. A Killing Game was supposed to begin with confusion, and eventually give way to a despair-filled understanding. Even as despairing as that could be, a Killing Game couldn't end still in confusion like that.

Angie did wonder about that. Which was better? A truth that brought about despair, but remedied confusion couldn't possibly be worse than a lie which kept people in the dark, without upsetting them at all, right? Sure, the truth would bring despair with it, Angie could tell that much from the ones that she'd used herself. It was important to know, though. It had to be important to know.

The truth was always important. Angie knew, as someone who kept secrets. Knowing the truth was painful, but it always worked out better in the long run than believing in a lie. If Angie had just realized that the previous oracle was lying when he said that Atua wanted him to hurt her, then she never would have doubted Atua. She would have been okay.

Well, maybe not. Maybe she never would have been able to be okay, maybe she was just doomed from the minute that she was born the person that she was. Even as she took over as the main oracle on her island, the old one was still in her life. Try as she might, she just couldn't escape him. Even now that he was gone, she couldn't escape the thought of him. She couldn't escape the way that he impacted her entire life.

But, there she went again, placing blame. Blaming other people. It wasn't Kaede's fault that Angie needed to be the one investigating this academy, because Kaede couldn't help letting her curiosity die in weakness. And it wasn't the prior oracle's fault, that Angie made bad decisions. He hurt her, but he didn't want to make her into anyone other than she was. Angie wouldn't blame Atua for her own bad decisions, either.

Atua could only guide her. She was the idiot who didn't listen. She was the idiot who just kept on losing her way, losing sight of her ideals.

She reached the top of the ladder, the boiler room, and took a deep breath. She didn't want to keep thinking about these things, but they just kept coming up. Angie was scared of getting too in-depth with her thoughts. Scared of making any more mistakes. She stepped toward the door and walked outside, finding herself out in the courtyard. It was dark. Of course it would be, she started off by skipping dinner then spent quite a bit of time underground. She looked up at the stars in the sky. They were so nice. Not like the outside world at all. Was that supposed to make her feel better?

Angie knew what she had to do next. She needed to find Gonta, or at least, find the Flashback Light that he took. If he hadn't turned up during Tenko's extensive search of the entire campus, Angie doubted that they'd actually be locating him. Not alive, anyway. Angie hated the idea that another death had happened so soon, but she couldn't imagine any other explanation for his thorough disappearance. If that was the case, then the body was hid especially well, wasn't it? Kaede did say that there were crawlspaces on every floor. Angie would check, but... Well, not quite yet. She didn't want to do it alone, anyway, not when somebody might be trying to cover this up.

Who would do such a thing though? Angie had to wonder. Was somebody else also trying to collect the Flashback Lights, and Gonta wouldn't hand his over? She didn't know what to think. It was hard to hypothesize about her classmates, especially when it came to wondering if they'd do bad things. She didn't want to believe that any of them would. But that was the bitter truth, and hadn't she just finished thinking about such things? She couldn't just ignore the possibility that Gonta was dead, because she didn't want to think about somebody committing a murder so soon after three people died. There was one person, though, Angie thought. One person to worry about.

Being alone was a bad idea, with a killer possibly on the loose, so Angie went to the nearest place she knew that she'd find another person. Others might not be back at the dorms yet, but there was one place. She approached Shuichi's lab to speak with its resident squatter. She doubted she could get him to escort her anywhere, but right now, she just didn't want to feel like a victim waiting to happen. He could fulfill that tiny requirement for her.


	144. Daily Life: Day Ten (Ouma Unlocked)

"It's Angie," Angie said as she tapped the backs of her knuckles against the door for Shuichi's lab twice, without much force. She just needed to let Kokichi know she was there, after all. It wasn't like he'd be focused on anything in there, or be asleep, as much as Angie wished that he would be. She waited a few minutes, a good five, but she did wait them, sitting on the ground outside the door. Kokichi opened it just as it was about to be six minutes, as her Monopad's time changed while she was putting it in her backpack. She stood up, made eye contact with him, and spoke, "The escape tunnel is a sham, Gokuhara couldn't have left the Ultimate Academy, I think that somebody might have killed him. You were the only person I knew for sure where you'd be, and that I trust. I'm scared to be alone now."

"...Yeah," Kokichi mumbled, stepping out and closing the door behind himself, turning to pick the lock shut as he elaborated, "That doesn't surprise me. It's not like Shirogane's very well contained, and it isn't as if nobody else could be a murderer, either."

"Shirogane's not very well contained?" Angie asked, not sure if she was confused by the statement on its own or the way that Kokichi phrased it as if she was an animal in a zoo and not a person.

Kokichi stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest. Angie noticed he was smiling, but something seemed off about it that she couldn't quite put her finger on until he spoke, in a bitter but lighthearted tone, "After we split up last night, you know, I ran into our favorite Ultimate Felon. She dragged me right back to the infirmary and said that she knew what could make me feel better. It was almost like she was _possessed_?" He chuckled, "Ah, so that's what 'the demon of addiction' does to somebody..."

Angie blinked in more confusion, "Huh?"

"I almost took 'Monokuma's Favorite Vicodin Rebranded As Aspirin', at her recommendation, but that's because, and I'm really going to blow your mind with this one," He said, pointing at her, "I'm an idiot. Anyway, if I'm telling you the truth, I had to spend some time last night preventing a murderer from relapsing into an opiate dependency. If I'm lying, then you'll probably be even _more_ concerned about my current well-being. Moving on, the point is, Shirogane can get out of her cell and I'd put my chips that she could have killed Gokuhara because in that tunnel, he found out something about the outside world that would have made her crime completely pointless? Or, something like that."

"And... You just came up with that? Something about the world that would have made her crime pointless? Are you sure you didn't use the Flashback Light yourself?" Angie asked, taking a step back and giving Kokichi an odd look, "And while we're at it, are you totally sure that you didn't take the vicodin?"

"I am depressed, forced to socialize with two different people yesterday, and haven't slept in more than forty-eight hours. I'd be shocked if I wasn't acting strange," Kokichi said, holding a hand to his chest while the other, bandaged one hung limp at his side, "Kind of manic, yes. I didn't take a thing, not even actual aspirin, I don't trust that infirmary. Sure, the shit got reorganized, but there could still be some sleeping pills in bottles they shouldn't be, and I'm not about to take that risk. I'd panic again, even if I took them on _purpose_ , and I'm already half blind. Don't need to gouge out the other too. Anyway, no, I only used the Flashback Light that I gave you. But I can only assume that if a light in the lab of a recent murder victim told me what happens to the bodies, a light in the escape tunnel might have some information about the outside."

"That's a good point," Angie said, then realized he was on to something. The light given directly to a student had a very specific memory of a traumatic moment Angie forgot, and then the moment she hit rock bottom and almost died. She could only assume it had the same individuality for each student. The one in Korekiyo's lab, the very first culprit, contained information about the very first Killing Game. She spoke up again, "A Flashback Light found on a roof, what would that do? What about... No, never mind," She didn't need to mention that one, "Just the roof, what do you think?"

"Why the Hell're you asking me? I'm not a genius or anything," Kokichi clicked his tongue, "Those were easy associations, and I don't know if I'm even right about the Escape Tunnel. If I had to guess, though, the roof... It'd be a Flashback Light containing information that, for some reason, Monokuma doesn't want us to know. Even though whoever made the lights obviously would want us to use them, otherwise, why even make them? So I guess putting it somewhere that's almost inaccessible kind of proves... Monokuma's not exactly working with the Mastermind, maybe?"

"Huh... That's a good deduction," Angie said, "But if the Mastermind makes the lights, how would Monokuma have gotten it to put it on the roof?"

"That's easy," Kokichi said with another slight laugh, "The Mastermind can make the lights, but they get sent to a place that only Monokuma can get to. It's probably not allowed by its programming to keep the lights wherever that is, so it hid the one it didn't want us getting, up on the roof. Have you used that one?"

"No," Angie said, shaking her head, "I didn't use it. Rantaro did, but he didn't have anything to say about it. Well, actually, he said that it would sound weird if he told me about it without me using it myself..."

"Did Akamatsu ever tell you about... Or did Shirogane tell you herself, Shirogane's theory?" Kokichi asked, whispering, "That we all... That all of us met before coming here, and we just had those memories removed so that we'd be willing to kill each other?"

"Yes," Angie lied. She hadn't heard that theory yet, not from either of those people, "I think it's plausible, to tell you the truth. We probably all met before... I feel like we have, anyway. I know all of you so much more than I should, after a week and a half."

"Hm," Kokichi mumbled, nodding, "You're right. And, I get this weird feeling. Like I should remember, but it's just out of reach..."

"In every previous Killing Game," Angie finished his thought for him, "The participants' despair was increased by the discovery that prior to the Killing Game, they were friends who would never hurt each other."

"How..." Kokichi trailed off, staring at her with the one visible eye. The shadow under it was so dark, he clearly wasn't lying about his lack of sleep, "How did you do that? That's what I was thinking, exactly, but I just couldn't grab it as a solid enough thought to say it."

"Yeah," Angie said, "Sometimes when that happens, you just gotta start saying it, and then it'll come out or it won't. With that in mind, though... I guess we really were friends before."

"Hey, Yonaga," Kokichi said, "I bet that we all got along a lot better with Idabashi before the Killing Game."

"I agree," Angie said, looking up at the sky, "But... I dunno if I would have wanted to be his friend, if I knew what sort of things he was capable of thinking."

"Can you really judge someone on what they did during a Killing Game?" Kokichi asked.

Angie shrugged, "You could say the opposite too, you know... Is there any better time to judge someone's true character than in the worst possible situation?"


	145. Daily Life: Day Ten (A Decision)

"Well, maybe you're right," Kokichi said with a shrug of his own, just with the one shoulder, "I can't imagine that would be the reason somebody would do something like this, though. It seems like a high cost to pay, to find out what type of person someone is at their core. If this was to figure out what type of people we were, then why the Hell would they let half of us die?"

Angie hesitated, "Yeah, you're right. That is weird. I was just thinking about something that I overheard. For anyone to be willing to let so many of us die for some dumb reason like that, there would have to be some seriously high stakes. What did you mean, though, how something in the outside world could make Shirogane's crime pointless? I thought that it still held up with at least the point of getting revenge for Saihara. That's why Akamatsu still thinks it's possible you did it and Shirogane's covering. Well, she did think that. Her mind seems to have changed though."

"Ha, yeah," Kokichi said, "That's right, it's still completely possible that it could have been me, in the eyes of the evidence. Shirogane really could have been covering for me, knowing that if she claimed it as a crime for Shuichi's sake, and for Akamatsu's, then there's no way she'd be voted over Idabashi. She had nothing to worry about except the repercussions that the student body is capable of, and clearly, those aren't that big a deal... I'd say that's a lie, though. I still haven't ever killed anybody. If you're right about the memory I would get from that Flashback Light that Iruma gave you, I only ever came close."

"I believe you," Angie said, turning to lean against the lab's wall, though she kept her eyes on him, "You're acting really different tonight. That's cause of the lack of sleep, and how you passed into mania instead of depression, huh? Well, I guess I'll take advantage of that for my own purposes. You wanna help me solve the mystery of the Ultimate Academy?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Kokichi said, making a bow as exaggerated as he possibly could in his current physical state, "You have my full, undivided attention. The Ultimate Liar is at your service. Well, unless that would make Amami jealous?"

"Pft," Angie giggled awkwardly, "I mean... You figured that out? Uh, well, anyway. Rantaro totally gets that you'd be way too torn up about Saihara to even think about flirting with anyone else, even if I was a guy, or you weren't totally gay."

"Of course I figured that out," Kokichi said, putting his hand on his hip, "I know a lot about a lot of things, Yonaga. I'm not unlike you in that sense. If you'll recall, I held one of the most important cards during the first trial. I just don't much like stepping on Akamatsu's toes, seeing as she was such a good friend to Shuichi... However, if you're already stepping on her toes, or if she really isn't concerned with solving this mystery, then I'm all in. I think I can trust you."

"Of course you can," Angie said, "I've never once given you a reason not to trust me, after all. Well, I guess I might be about to, though."

"What do you mean?" Kokichi asked.

"You said that Shirogane was able to get out of her lab," Angie said, sighing, "Obviously, that means I need to change something. Akamatsu or Hoshi, if he decided to leave his lab in the middle of the night... Either one of them could have set her free. That means I have to change the access parameters."

"How do you expect to do that?" Kokichi asked, "You don't mean..."

"Ah, well," Angie lifted a hand to scratch at her own cheek, "It's just a theory I have... I think that I might have the same access code for a panel like that, as I did the one in the Escape Tunnel. I don't think the number I used would actually work if anyone else tried it, probably. That's what Atua says. The panel looks the same, so I might be able to mess around with it if I use that number. I know, I know. If I say things like that, it almost makes me seem like I'm the Mastermind, huh?"

"Yeah, almost," Kokichi said, "But I guess that the real Mastermind would never call attention to that fact. They'd be too smart to do something that stupid."

"Unless it's a trick to make you think exactly that. Or maybe the Mastermind is too stupid to do something that smart," Angie giggled, "Anyway, wait for me here, I'll be right back. I'll go test my theory on my own, so you don't have to run into anybody if you don't want to."

"Sure thing," Kokichi agreed with a single nod.

Angie turned and ran off towards Tsumugi's lab, but midway there, she felt something on her ankle. Rather than stop to see what it was, she just slowed her step to a casual walk and spoke out loud, "Hi, Monokuma. What's with the sudden subtlety?"

"I thought it would be kind of tacky, to go all-out announcing myself to you when all I want is a conversation!" Monokuma answered, letting go of her ankle and standing up straight. It was a pretty large robot teddy bear, but pretty small for an actual bear. The top of its ears were just shy of Angie's shoulders, and she was on the shorter side as humans went.

"A conversation, huh?" Angie asked, "Is this about the light I took from the roof? I won't be giving that up to you, and you had better not steal it. If you steal any of my Flashback Lights, I'll do something you really won't like. I bet it'd be way worse than if I just used the light."

"You got it, fair and square. I might have stolen it back, but you did get a concussion while obtaining it. Stealing from an injured little girl would make me a total dickhead! I know I'm an asshole, but that's just too far!" It laughed, then continued, "And I know, I know. If I piss you off too much, you'll piss me off in quadruplicate! That's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about changing the access on Tsumugi Shirogane's Lab. You're wrong to think that number would work here too."

"Oh, that's a shame," Angie said, "So how _can_ I change it? I know there's a way for me to do it."

"I'm not telling!" Monokuma said. Angie pouted, then stopped moving for just a moment to get behind Monokuma and wrap her arms around it from behind, lifting it up.

"Aww! Come on, come on, tell me!" She waved it back and forth, teasing, "Why are you so _small_ , Monokuma? An injured little girl like me can lift you up, you're tiny! Teeny, tiny, Mono-kuma!"

"I'm a Headmaster Monokuma, not a Battle Monokuma, so I don't need to be huge!" Monokuma protested, "How did you know what I'm sensitive about!? Fine, I'll tell you how to change the access parameter, just stop calling me small!"

"Okay!" Angie said and put the robot bear back down, dropping the topic as if she'd never even brought it up, somehow fully aware of what Monokuma would get flustered over, "So, how do I do it?"

"I'll do it for you," Monokuma said, "But there's only two settings. One setting is that everyone except the prisoner can open the lab. The other is that only Monokuma can open the lab, and as part of my programming, there are only a few situations in which I can actually do that. The majority of students vote for me to open it at any given time, someone inside is having a medical emergency, or an event which requires every student to attend, like a class trial, is about to begin. So are you sure you want that, Angie?"

"Yes," Angie said without hesitation, "Make it so."


	146. Daily Life: Day Ten (An Outlandish Theory)

Angie returned to Kokichi without even reaching Tsumugi's lab, thanks to Monokuma's cooperation in her endeavor to make sure that Tsumugi wouldn't be running wild anymore. She stepped right in front of Kokichi with a smug smile, not saying anything.

"You... Got the thing changed?" Kokichi hazarded a guess.

"Yeah," Angie said, "Shhhh. I didn't consult with anyone or anything, so the others might be kinda mad to hear that I had the change made. Now, Monokuma is the only one that can open the door to that lab at all. There's no way Shirogane got out without someone letting her out, so human access privileges? Revoked. Someone abused it, now nobody can use it at all. That's how punishments work."

"Correction," Kokichi said, "That's how fair punishments work. There are plenty of unfair punishments that have nothing to do with the offense committed."

"Ohh, you mean, like, getting forced to suck a dick cause you played the wrong note in a song! Or..." She clasped her hands behind her back, "Missing a cue on a trick, huh? Wonder if you and I ended up Ultimates just cause failure had too many consequences."

"That doesn't exactly work right when success has all the same consequences," Kokichi shot back, "I think you and I ended up Ultimates because our skills were the only way to escape from everything else that was terrible, so we threw ourselves into them as much as possible as the Ultimate Distraction."

"That too," Angie said, then reached out and gently tapped the back of his palm with her fingertips, "Hey, hey. We should go get investigating, right? It's dumb, to just stand here feeling sorry for ourselves when that's all our problems in the past. We have problems in the present to be thinking about! And problems in the ever-elusive future, too. Do you wanna... Use my Flashback Lights?"

"I think it's probably better if I use those at the same time as everybody else, to tell you the truth. I used one already, and you've used two of them, right? And Amami used the other one. If you really need to know what's on that one, either use it yourself or ask him about it," Kokichi said, "Actually, I was thinking that I should show you something that's a little bit more interesting than stuff that's in the past. A present problem, you might say. Or maybe it's the solution to one! It'll certainly make you stop worrying about one thing that's on your mind, and trust me, worrying about less things is a definite step on the road to happiness!" He started to walk in the general direction of the shrine, "I say, as if I'm still on that road at all. Then again, I thought I wasn't till I met him, so maybe I can get back on it someday! Haa, I know what you're thinking. As If. Had my shot and I lost it!"

"I wasn't thinking that," Angie said, "I do believe that you can still become happy. Even if you do need to do it without Saihara... I think that you should be optimistic, though."

"Optimistic how, like somehow he's gonna come back to life and everything will be just fine? I was an idiot to let him make me happy, and you know it too, Yonaga. I should have been more careful, more guarded, let things play out and just waited to see what would happen. Waited to see if he would stick around. If he would even get the chance to," Kokichi said, "It's a lot harder to be happy if you had something great and lost it."

"You said that there might be something to make Shirogane's crime totally pointless, though. You didn't elaborate on that when I asked you earlier, so what did you mean?" Angie asked, "Saihara got killed. That's point enough, right? Or do you know something else?"

"...Okay," Kokichi muttered, "I may have... Found something."

"Found something?" Angie asked, "I thought you were staying inside Saihara's lab? Where could you have found something?"

"I actually did go exploring last night, after I managed to shake Shirogane," Kokichi said, "And, well, I ended up in Hoshi's lab. He was there, but he fell asleep, so I took a look around."

"What did you find?" Angie asked, wide-eyed and staring right at him. That was her second biggest curiosity, after the mystery of the Academy in general. And Kokichi had found the answer? She needed to hear it.

"A lot of things," He said, "But by far the most interesting was a manual. It was inside a drawer, a locked one. Hoshi probably didn't even know it was there, cause there wasn't any sort of key in sight. You know my skillset, though, I was able to totally get it open, and the manual I found in it was super weird. 'The Rules of a Neo World Program', it said."

"What's that?" Angie asked.

"As far as I could tell, it's virtual reality," Kokichi said, "A virtual reality exactly like the normal world, even down to complete brain death if someone is killed within the virtual reality. I can't honestly see what the point of something like that would be, but I do have one theory."

"A theory...?" Angie questioned, her arms limp at her side and her face full of worry, "Something that could make revenge for Saihara's murder pointless?"

"We're all already dead," Kokichi said, holding out his good arm in front of himself and staring at his fingers, "If that manual has any relevance, and we are in some sort of Neo World Program, the only reason for that would be if we were dead on the outside, right? You said that we have memories of almost dying, in one of those Flashback Lights, right? Revenge for Saihara doesn't matter, if all the dying we had left to do was brain death."

"Don't you think that's a little bit farfetched?" Angie asked, frowning, "I mean, how could we be dead without brain death? I guess that for all your good ideas, you can be pretty dumb without sleep sometimes too."

"...Maybe you're right," Kokichi said, lowering his hand with a sigh, "I guess I just wanted to latch onto something that could let me think that maybe it was inevitable, that Shuichi died. There were plenty of other things in Hoshi's lab that are definitely not relevant to this Killing Game."

"Would it really be better, if we were already dead? If Saihara was dead in the outside world, but then just died again here, that'd be worse. That'd mean that when the Killing Game is over, we're all just over too. And I dunno about me in the real world, but I don't want that to happen, not here, not anymore. If I'm going to die, I want it to be for a reason. And I definitely don't want to just... End when the Killing Game does. I know you don't want that either."

"You're right," Kokichi said, "I don't. It's pretty tragic to think about an outcome like that. This shitty game ends, and then our lives are just over too? I'd think we deserve some sort of reward for surviving through all of this. It would hurt less, though, to think that Shuichi didn't die for real here. I guess that's the only thing about that line of thought that'd be good, and not terrible."

"Tunnel vision, huh?" Angie prodded, then gave him a slight smile, "It's okay. I can't blame you. But you know, even if I don't like what she did, I can't say that it was pointless. Shirogane got revenge for Saihara's murder. That's the unfortunate truth," She looked away, "I know, right? You wish it really had been you, who did it."


	147. Daily Life: Day Ten (Wishing For A Meaningful Death)

"Hey, you bastards!" Monokuma's voice interrupted with the nighttime announcement, right on time, "Get to sleep, will ya? Too many people staying up lately! All you gotta do is get some rest, okay? Messing around after nightfall is really lame."

"Oh, shut up, Monokuma," Angie muttered under her breath, then turned back to Kokichi, "I'm right, aren't I? If it had been you who got revenge for Saihara's murder, you'd have preferred it, right? You'd be better off, you wouldn't be trying to find some way to take the credit of vengeance away from Shirogane by coming up with bizarre theories."

"Yeah, I know. Atua tell you that?" Kokichi asked.

"Not this time. I told you, I can be smart about people, sometimes," Angie said, "I'm a good judge of character."

"Yeah," He chuckled, tilting his mouth up in a slight smirk, "Me too. So you tell anyone yet, that you don't hear much from Atua these days?"

"...Just Rantaro," Angie admitted, "Is it really that obvious? He hasn't said much to me at all, since Saihara died."

"You're taking ahold of your own life," Kokichi said, "That's what it seems to me, like you're becoming more 'Angie Yonaga' than 'voice of Atua'. It's a good look on you, I must admit. That's probably why Amami likes you."

"Shush," Angie reprimanded him, "He might like it, but I sure don't! It's all new to me, and I'm stressed out without somebody telling me all about what has happened and what's going to happen, and what the people around me think of me, and if the weather's gonna be favorable for the growth of crops."

"Well, that last bit doesn't exactly mean anything here," Kokichi said, "But I understand what you're saying. It's different. Different doesn't mean bad, though, not always. There's something to be said for the fact that you don't want your life to just end when the Killing Game does. I guess maybe what I wanted to show you wouldn't make you feel any better, so let's drop it and get some rest. Maybe I'll show you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Angie mumbled, "Well, I said that I want my death to mean something. If my death means the end of the Killing Game, then that's okay. I guess that's technically the same thing, but it feels different to me."

"Huh, that's a good point," Kokichi said, "I mean... That there is somebody here who could put a stop to the Killing Game by dying. The Mastermind could."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking about," Angie said, "But I guess that if The Mastermind wanted to end the Killing Game by dying, then they would have done it already. Whoever they are, they aren't really on our side. It's hard to imagine hating anybody here as much as we ought to hate The Mastermind, though."

"Hey, who knows," Kokichi said, "Maybe The Mastermind's been wanting to do something, but they can't. We already decided that Monokuma doesn't get along with them, for starters. Maybe The Mastermind was going to end The Killing Game right away after the last trial, but now Gokuhara's probably dead and that won't work out."

"Why are you giving them the benefit of the doubt?" Angie questioned, "Whoever The Mastermind is, it's awful, what they've done. They deserve no sympathy, no benefit of the doubt, absolutely nothing. You know that, right? You can't care about The Mastermind."

"You're asking me to do the impossible," Kokichi said with a bitter smile on his face, "I can't just not care about anybody here. Trust me, I wish that I could, and I most certainly would because god damn, does caring about people hurt. I wish I never learned how to do it! Now that I have, it's brought me only misery. And it will bring me even more misery when The Mastermind reveals their identity, but I just have to be prepared for that."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Angie said, "Well, I guess that when you find out who it is, you'll stop caring. It's easy to pardon someone in the abstract, not so easy when you're faced with what they've done, for real."

"Haa, maybe," Kokichi admitted, moving to stand directly in front of Angie, "But I know what it means to pardon somebody, and I know what it means for somebody to be unpardonable. I would never dream of saying that certain people's actions just weren't that bad. I have to know the motivation before I can say that I could never forgive someone."

"What possible motivation could make you forgive The Mastermind, huh...?" Angie prodded, her voice soft and curious, losing all of its accusing tone that it had previously carried.

Kokichi thought for a moment, then gave his answer, "Well, I don't know. It is hard to think of what would make pioneering a Killing Game okay. But since I don't know, I can't pass judgment yet. For all I know, there could be a very, very good reason behind it. A greater good type of thing... If all of us _were_ planning or going to die anyway, and putting us in a Killing Game somehow helped the rest of the world, maybe I wouldn't be too mad about it. Just annoyed that I had to end up caring about people right before I lost them."

"You're way too forgiving," Angie said.

"Way too forgiving?" Kokichi asked, then shook his head, "I'm really not. Like I said, there are plenty of people I'll never forgive. You probably have more forgiveness in your heart than I do if we really boil it down to some sort of point system."

"I'm more hateful than you might expect," Angie said, "Well, I get mad at people easily, I hold grudges easily. I guess that I do forgive people eventually, though. As long as the universe makes sure they pay for what they did, then I can forgive. Cause who am I to judge when Atua's gone ahead and dealt with it?"

"Some people never get what's coming to them, though," Kokichi muttered, "Like my manager. You watched the video. He's not getting any comeuppance for what he did, he's just going on and doing the same shit to someone new. It's fine to hate those people, right?"

"Yeah," Angie said, "You should hate those people. I hate him for you, I think. Just because of the video, even if I didn't like you at all, I'd hate him for you. But, that reminds me. If I got your video, then whose did you get?"

"It's probably Chabashira's," Kokichi said, "As far as I can tell, it seems like hers. A kinda grubby guy, hanging out with a bunch of equally grubby guys, the same ones in almost every shot but doing different things. Looks like they're mostly in places like tents. Can't imagine who else's that would be."

"Yeah..." Angie trailed off, then pressed her hands together, "Hey. Do you think you'll be able to get any sleep?"

"Doubt it," Kokichi said, "And before you even try to offer, because I know it would stress you out beyond belief, as much as I trust you is still not enough that you could help me anyway. Don't worry about it. If it gets too bad, I'll just end up passing out until I'm rested enough to function again. Go spend some time with Amami. You've still got someone who can make you happy, so don't waste it."

"You know I tried to think about you," Angie said, "I tried not to end up like that, with him. It's dumb to care about somebody that much in a Killing Game. I know that..."

"Sometimes you can't help it," Kokichi said, "Besides. How much more can either of you lose anyway? Each other won't be a huge problem anymore."

"You know I wish you weren't right about that," Angie sighed.

 

\-----

[Hey there! A few things for you guys at the end of this chapter. The first is that if by any chance you want to meet me in person, I will be attending Anime Boston this year. I'll be attending on Saturday and Sunday, mostly wandering around the artist alley and the dealer hall. More specifically, on both days I'll try to be sitting outside of Meeting Room 313 of the Hynes between 1 pm and 2 pm. On Saturday I'll be in a Monokuma hoodie, Sunday I'll be in a sweatshirt that says 'meow' on the front, and I'll put the image of Yumeno's angels into my ita bag, hopefully to be recognizable. Who knows, maybe if you come and see me I'll give you some secret behind-the-scenes info about this fic?

 

Moving on from that, I've also made a spotify playlist of songs that I, personally, feel fit my fic and version of the characters... https://open.spotify.com/user/1rhlhzz0egykns5zf5v3mvhz5/playlist/0VyS5hVJTd5X0xyr2ZsEO4?si=Wv-vNEbFRFi35AoRmnsbsQ This is the sort of stuff I listen to while writing and brainstorming, and I hope that if you're interested it can give you more perspective on how I get inspired. Thanks for your time! ]


	148. Daily Life: Day Ten (Of The Voices In My Head The Loudest One Is Mine)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'm gonna make these chapter titles really self-explanatory, or at least more meaningful than memes-  
> This chapter: Exists  
> Me: Sorry Folks It's A Musical Reference Now
> 
> (I'm very sorry)

Angie returned to the dorms for the night, finding Rantaro's room and knocking on it again. As soon as he opened the door, she stepped forward and hugged him, in as much of a way which was tolerable to them both.

"Hey, Angie..." Rantaro greeted her, "You okay? There a reason you skipped dinner again?"

"Yeah," Angie admitted, "I didn't want anyone to see me going to the Boiler Room. I was taking a look at the Escape Tunnel for myself."

"Find anything?" Rantaro asked.

Angie had already decided she would confide in two people. Kokichi because he could help her, and Rantaro because she actually trusted him. Maybe it was cruel of her to say that she wasn't trusting, but using Kokichi. It wasn't like she distrusted him, she trusted him as a friend, but she didn't trust him all the way. Not like she trusted Rantaro. But Kokichi didn't trust her all the way either, so she stopped feeling bad about it, "Yes, I did. Nothing good."

"Oh no..." Rantaro mumbled, then ushered her inside and closed the door behind her, "Want to tell me about it?"

"Of course I want to tell you about it," Angie said as she went and sat down on his bed, "You know how there's a control panel down there? I figured out the number to get it to open up again, and there's no actual exit. Just some words spraypainted on a wall. It said 'The only escape to be found is in this Flashback Light', or something like that."

"So, Gokuhara..." Rantaro trailed off, "He didn't escape."

"He's probably dead," Angie said, her voice blank and empty. She'd already come to terms with this fact, but that didn't make it any less awful.

"Jesus, Angie, that's..." Rantaro sat down next to her, sighing, "Yeah, it's probably true. That's terrible. I can't believe we all thought..."

"I can," Angie said, "Of anyone to escape here in one piece, all of us would have wanted Gokuhara to. He's good people. We all wanted to believe that he got out. I guess... I'll have to break the news at breakfast. Or maybe, you know, we can just find his body and find out who could have killed him."

"I bet it was Monokuma," Rantaro said.

"I bet not," Angie shook her head, "Gokuhara wasn't about to break the rules."

"That's for sure," Rantaro sighed, "He even got me to fix his Monopad right away, so he could make sure that he knew all of the rules."

"Yeah," Angie said, "And Monokuma can't kill someone who doesn't break the big rules. It's a robot, so we know that it can't do something like that. So it was somebody. Somebody here."

"What if it was him?" Rantaro asked, "What if he saw something so awful in that memory that he killed himself instead of continuing to live with it?"

Angie paused a moment, then shook her head, "I don't think Monokuma would let that happen either."

"What? Why not?" Rantaro asked.

"Because it wants interesting things to happen," Angie said, "It wants to be able to put people through those horrifying executions. Shinguji killed himself, so why would Monokuma let that happen again?"

"Monokuma isn't the one who stopped me from killing myself," Rantaro said, "That was you, Angie."

"That's right," Angie said.

"You stopped me. Not Monokuma. So what makes you think that it would stop Gokuhara?" Rantaro asked.

Angie didn't answer.

"Angie, what are you thinking about?"

"Rantaro," Angie whispered, "Who do you think told me where you were, what you were doing? It wasn't coincidence that I came to stop you."

"I kind of thought Atua would have told you that," Rantaro said, not seeming taken aback at all by her statement.

"Atua, Monokuma, big difference," Angie muttered, reaching for Rantaro's hand, "All I know for certain is I listen to whatever I hear. You'd think their voices would sound really different, but no, not really. Atua is less obnoxious, obviously, but it's the same kind of pitch. That's funny, isn't it? Atua should sound so much wiser than stupid Monokuma, but he doesn't. Maybe somehow the people who made this game knew what Atua sounds like. Or maybe Atua made his voice sound that way because he knew that someday, I'd need to believe something that Monokuma said to me."

"I'm glad that you did," Rantaro said, "Even if Monokuma told you to do it. I'm glad to be alive, and to be here with you. I don't want to lose this... But I'm prepared for it if it happens, too. I care about you a lot, but it's a guarded kind of care, so I won't be crushed to pieces if you died. You know that, right?"

"Good to hear you at least tried a little bit, to take my advice," Angie said, "Because I feel the same way about you. I care the absolute most that is possible without letting myself become a total disaster if you were to die."

"Wow, I'm honored," Rantaro said, turning his head to smile at her, "I don't think it matters, if it was Atua or Monokuma, if any of it was Atua or Monokuma the whole time we've been here. What matters is that whatever voices you've been hearing, they've helped you get this far."

"I'm glad I got this far," Angie said, "I mean... I don't think that it's great, to have to watch my friends die, getting this far is bad for that reason. I'm just... Glad I'm not dead yet. I think there are plenty of times that I could have died, but maybe for a little while, people really are better off having me around. Just a little better off, maybe, but I think I make you happy. And I think that I was able to be a friend to Ouma when he needed one, and all sorts of things. I think that it's a good thing that I am alive right now, and every day before now. Maybe tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that, it won't be a good thing anymore. But it is right now."

"It is," Rantaro confirmed, "It's a very good thing that you are and have been alive. I wouldn't be, without you. Who else would listen to the disembodied voice of Monokuma telling them to come and help me?"

"If I was dead," Angie said, "Maybe Monokuma wouldn't have tried to stop you at all, who knows. Like what if I'd killed Shinguji?"

"You didn't, right?" Rantaro asked.

"Of course not!" Angie laughed a bit at that, "We already determined it was a lie that Kaede was wrong about a culprit earlier in the Killing Game, you know."

"Of course, how could I have forgotten?" Rantaro joked right back, then stood up, "We should get some sleep. You and me and Ouma, right? We'll find Gokuhara's body tomorrow morning?"

"Tomorrow afternoon," Angie said, "Too many people have been found dead in the morning. I don't like having a whole day ahead of us when the trial is over."

"...Okay," Rantaro said, "Kinda messed up, huh? How we're talking about this like we're figuring out what to do for dinner next Thursday, and not that we're going to find a dead body..."

"It is kinda messed up," Angie said, "But that's cause we're all kinda messed up, you know? And this place isn't kinda messed up. It's really messed up."

\-----

[MONOKUMA THEATRE]

...

...

Geeze. I'm not that small, am I?

Angie sure can be mean if she wants to be.


	149. Daily Life: Day Eleven (POV Switch; Confessions)

"Good morning, you bastards! Thanks for actually getting some sleep last night, I appreciate it!" Monokuma announced, "And that's all I've got to say!"

Kaede woke up, stood up, and approached the gate out of Tsumugi's lab.

And that was when she discovered that something was wrong. Something was very much wrong, because the lock on the gate wasn't responding to her fingerprints. It wasn't unlocking for her, where it had always done before without fail. She tried a few more times, then turned back around.

"What's going on, Kaede?" Tsumugi asked from where she sat in her sleeping bag, brow furrowed in concern, "Aren't you going to breakfast?"

"I was going to," Kaede said, "But the gate's not opening. I don't know why."

"That's weird," Tsumugi said, getting up out of her sleeping bag to approach the gate herself, "Kaede, let me see what's happening when you touch it."

"Right," Kaede said, then tried again. The only indicator that something was wrong was the red coloring of the fingerprint pad and the fact that the gate, well, didn't open, "Do you think it's broken?"

"That's exactly what it does if I try to open it," Tsumugi mumbled, taking a step back and holding her hands in close to her chest, "Why... Why isn't it letting you out now? Did you do something?"

"I didn't," Kaede said.

"Well, I did," Tsumugi admitted, "But I can't see how it would impact you. Ryoma came to visit after you were asleep, just after the nighttime announcement, and he let me out for a little while. The only person I ran into was Ouma, though. I had to distract him long enough for Ryoma to get back to his lab."

"I had nothing to do with that," Kaede said, "But more importantly, what the Hell, Tsumugi? Everyone's already having enough trouble trusting you _and_ me, and you agreed to take whatever punishment they gave you. Why would you jeopardize that?"

"I just wanted to talk to Ryoma without waking you-" Tsumugi started.

"That's bullshit," Kaede interrupted, then grabbed both of Tsumugi's shoulders, "I can tell when people are lying to me, so tell me the truth, Tsumugi. I'm the Ultimate Detective, so why would you think you could hide something from me?"

"You're right..." Tsumugi said, dipping her head with a groan, "Okay. That was an excuse. I wanted to go to the infirmary. I relapsed... No, I didn't relapse. I was relapsing, but Ouma stopped me, because he was there."

"Tsumugi..." Kaede whispered.

"I'm sorry, I know I said that we were going to both become better people, but Kaede, it's hard, it's really hard," Tsumugi protested, "I'm not like the rest of you, I didn't endure some horrible hardship and come out on the other side, I'm a Tragic Ultimate because of the way that I just ran away from my problems, and they weren't even big problems. I'm not cut out to be in a Killing Game... I'm just an ordinary, pathetic girl. I'm hardly even good enough to be called an Ultimate in the first place."

"It's okay, Tsumugi," Kaede said, "You've gotten this far, haven't you? And anyway, it's not like I endured much either. I was still in despair over my parents when I got here, and I still panic if I lose my time. And if you're not good enough to be an Ultimate, then I'm sure not. I never solved a single case before I got my title, remember? And yeah, we promised, but I screwed that up too. I want to be better, but I just keep falling further and further into despair. I mean, I became claustrophobic. That's a step backwards for sure. Just... accept that we're both disasters, and maybe changing is something that needs more effort than a promise."

"It's my fault you're stuck in here too now, though," Tsumugi gave a weak, continued protest, evidently having taken most of Kaede's words to heart but still feeling bad for her mistake.

"That's no big deal," Kaede said, "There's books I can read, and you're here, and someone will bring us food, cause they're good people, you know? And I'm sure that if another body is found, I'll be let out to investigate. Really, it's no big deal. The Killing Game has to end sometime, and then we'll both be let out in the real world, and we can put all of this behind us."

"That's optimistic of you," Tsumugi said.

"Well, if anything," Kaede said, "If I'm stuck in here with you, then you're not a sitting duck anymore. If I can't open it even though I had nothing to do with you leaving, then I bet nobody else can open it either. We're trapped but we're safe."

"And the optimism continues," Tsumugi said, "I guess you were wrong. It didn't die with Saihara, it just took a break."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Kaede said, "But... You might be right. Maybe a few days ago, this would have gotten to me a lot more. I'm recovering emotionally a little bit. Just a little. Maybe you've helped me do that after all."

"I can't take too much credit," Tsumugi said, "I just keep screwing up."

"So stop screwing up," Kaede said, "Well, you can screw up, that's fine, it happens. Don't try to lie to me about it, though. We can't keep secrets from each other."

"Okay," Tsumugi said, "So what about the secret you're keeping from me? Will you own up to that?"

"Right," Kaede said, frowning as she turned away, "Okay, there was a Flashback Light in Shinguji's lab. Yonaga and I went and found it, and used it. We agreed not to show it to anyone else, and she's holding on to it in the meantime."

"I thought it was something like that," Tsumugi said, "So what was in that Flashback Light that made you decide that you couldn't share it?"

"It was about the first Killing Game," Kaede said, "Well, it gave us a memory that the first Killing Game was orchestrated by a group called Ultimate Despair. And a few other details that I couldn't really explain... It didn't seem important, just like it could upset people."

"I see," Tsumugi said, "I can understand why you'd decide not to share that, but you could have at least told me that you found something, Kaede. And I could tell you lied to me about there being nothing in Shinguji's lab. We won't lie to each other any more."

"Right," Kaede said, "I don't know if it's just correlation or causation, but lying to each other's had some things go wrong for us. So maybe things will look up if we stick to telling the truth."


	150. Daily Life: Day Eleven (POV Switch; Breakfast)

Angie and Rantaro arrived at breakfast together, encountering Tenko and Miu already seated at the table. Angie sat down, then folded her hands in front of herself and blurted out, "Kaede won't be joining us for breakfast because Monokuma locked her in Shirogane's Lab last night. None of us can open the gate anymore, and Monokuma will only open it if majority votes that it should, or a few other specific situations."

"Wait, what?" Tenko asked, "Why's that?"

"There are two settings for labs converted to cells," Angie said, "One is that everyone except the prisoner can open it, the other is this new, Monokuma only setting. I asked Monokuma about changing it because somebody let Shirogane out yesterday night."

"How did you find that out?" Miu asked, surprised, "Do you think it was Akamatsu, or...?"

"It has to have been either Akamatsu or Hoshi," Somebody else butted in, and Angie turned to see Kokichi standing in the outer doorway of the Dining Hall, "And Yonaga found that out because I'm the one who saw Shirogane while she was out. She didn't seem to be in a very good place mentally, either. I confided in Yonaga, so she solved the problem."

"Ouma!" Tenko exclaimed, standing up from the table, "Hey, it's good to see you again."

"Likewise, Chabashira," Kokichi said with a nod in her direction, then looked to the table, "Awful empty here isn't it?"

"It's been this empty the last few days," Tenko said, "But with Akamatsu here instead of you. Hoshi won't leave his lab, Gokuhara escaped the academy, and Shirogane's locked up, so..."

"I've heard," Kokichi said, pulling out a chair and sitting down on Angie's other side, "Yonaga's been keeping me updated on what's been going on around here and all, so I'm not out of the loop just because I've been isolating myself."

"Is it okay if I take a look at your injuries after breakfast, Ouma?" Miu asked, "I want to make sure that they're healing well."

"Yeah, that's fine," Kokichi said, "I think they might be more severe than you're assuming, though. There's only so much healing that can be done for shit like this."

"I'm not making any assumptions about the severity," Miu said, "But I've dressed wounds before, so I'm the closest thing here to a nurse. If there's any chance at letting you see through your right eye again, I want to make it happen."

"You do continue to impress at every turn, Iruma. Is there anything that you can't do?" Kokichi asked.

"No, nothing at all," Miu said, "As the Ultimate Maid, I am capable of everything and anything that could assist my masters. Obviously, that includes first aid. The only reason I wasn't the one to treat your wounds when you first received them is because I wasn't informed you were wounded."

"That's on purpose," Kokichi admitted, leaning on the table, "I figured you'd be better at dressing my wounds than Yonaga was, but Akamatsu was hyperfocused on the case and Yonaga was busy with me. If I didn't mention it, nobody was going to think of it, and I guess part of it was that I thought," Kokichi trailed off, bringing his left hand up to his injured eye, "I probably deserved this. It was partially my fault, after all, that Shuichi ended up dead."

"Don't say that," Miu frowned, "It's not your fault at all. Things happen, especially in a situation like this, and it's not anybody's fault except the person who did it. Anyway, it's not too late. I might still be able to fix it for you, Ouma. I'll try my best."

"Thanks, Iruma, but," Kokichi leaned back in his chair, shrugging, "I think it's better this way."

"Don't talk like that-" Rantaro started, only for Kokichi to interrupt him as Angie pressed a finger against his lips in a shushing motion, as if they'd coordinated it.

"No, I mean it, and not in a 'I hate myself so much, I deserve this' way, not anymore. I mean, all truth be told, I'm not as fucked up by what happened as you probably expected me to be, right? And I guess part of that's because I did this. It's like, I lost a part of my physical body, that makes the pain of losing a part of my heart more of an external sort of thing, yeah? It's bullshit, but I'm sure you guys know what I'm saying. Not like you've never hurt yourselves before. Not saying I recommend it, it's bullshit and I know that it'll fade and I'll just be worse off over all. But you know it helps for a little while, before it ends up hurting worse."

"...Yeah, I guess you're right," Tenko said, "It's a temporary solution, but it's the best you can get in a place like this. It's not like you can see a therapist or anything, and you can't just totally break down either in this situation."

"Still..." Rantaro trailed off, "It's really kind of awful that you feel like you have to do that, Ouma."

"Don't you lecture me," Kokichi said, turning his gaze to Rantaro, glaring, "I know what you tried to do. Oh, and don't blame Yonaga, I figured that out all on my own. Don't try and get up on a high horse with that sort of thing in your past, okay?"

"You're brutal," Rantaro complained, shaking his head with a sheepish smile, "What'll it take to convince you to back to your cave, huh?"

"Sorry, I'm here to stay this time," Kokichi joked back, relaxing his glare and giving his own half-smile, "I'd have winked when I said that, but it wouldn't exactly be clear what I was doing, so I'm telling you instead."

"We're glad to have you back, Ouma," Tenko said, putting her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands, "We were all pretty worried about you, when you were hiding from us, you know. The fact that we knew where you were hiding was basically the only reason we didn't start panicking about your complete and utter disappearance."

"Aw, I'm touched," Kokichi said, "You guys really worried about me? I didn't know that I took up enough of your thoughts to prompt worry, so forgive me if I'm a little proud to have made such an impact on all of you!"

"Of course we worried," Miu said, "I mean, you were running for student council president, and you did make it a tie, so obviously you were at least well-liked."

"Being well-liked was situational," Kokichi said, "Sorta thought once Shuichi died and I started moping around and everything, I'd lose any goodwill I'd managed to get for myself. And you know, even my own votes were being kind of shitty about my truths and lies... And some of them are gone now anyway, and didn't Hoshi switch sides on me cause he didn't like what Monokuma said about me?"

"Obviously any sort of leadership is kind of out of the question now," Tenko said, "But if it wasn't, I don't care who you'd be running against, you'd still have my vote. I don't give a shit about what Monokuma said about you, or the fact that your mood's changed, you're still Ouma. You're still the same Kokichi Ouma who volunteered to help when Yumeno got sick, and the same one who stood up for her in the trial, and the one who kept us from trying to argue the value of our friends' lives against each other. That's not going to change."

"...Do you think things would've been different, if I hadn't proposed the coin toss?" Kokichi asked, "Or just, if it turned out the other way?"

"Maybe," Tenko said, "But who knows. Maybe nothing would be different. Maybe Yumeno would have ended up as Idabashi's accomplice, same as Tojo did. She could have been gullible enough for that We can't change the past, so why think about it?"

"I guess you're right," Kokichi said, "I just can't help but wonder if I could have done something differently, you know? Everyone wonders that about anything that goes wrong, like they had all the power and one different step from one person could have seriously changed what happened... Even if they know it's pointless. I know it's pointless. It's completely pointless."


	151. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Discussing the Mastermind)

"People's decisions do matter," Angie said, following up on Kokichi's statement, "But you're right. One person's decisions can't change the outcome of a situation that drastically. Not for the better, anyway."

"So, one person's decisions can change things for the worse?" Tenko asked.

"I mean, obviously," Angie said, "Nobody can claim to have enough power to prevent something awful, if you think back, most things are beyond you. If you think of ways to make it better, you just think of more ways it'd fail. If you think of ways to make it worse, it could succeed."

"That's a good point," Rantaro said, "It's easier to think of how to be cruel, than how to fix something. I guess that's because fixing something would probably mean stopping somebody else from committing an act of cruelty, and that's their decision, not yours. Right?"

"Yeah," Angie said, "That's why, a lot of the time, the only way to fix something would be to make it worse, just in a different way. Like, think about all of us. An easy way to fix our situations before we came here would have been to kill the people who hurt us, but then we're murderers, so it's trading one evil for another. Maki fell victim to that, right? She just didn't have to make the decision, her programming made it for her. She ended up killing Momota so that more of us wouldn't be killed. She made one thing worse so that another thing could be better."

"The best anyone can hope for in this world," Kokichi added in, "Is to do bad things that cause more good than harm in the end."

"I don't think that's true," Miu said, "I try to do good things as much as I can, and I know that good comes of what I do."

"Yeah," Kokichi said, "That can happy, but it doesn't mean you're fixing anything. There's a difference there. Say The Mastermind wanted to end this game, for example. Because Shinguji committed suicide already, Monokuma wouldn't let it happen again. It would find that boring," Angie was taken aback by Kokichi's words. She hadn't said any of that to him; Had he figured it out on his own? "So in order to end the Killing Game, The Mastermind would need to commit their own murder. And for that matter, Monokuma would probably change the double jeopardy rules so that if another murder had already happened when The Mastermind committed their own, The Mastermind wouldn't end up being the one executed for their crime."

"What makes you think The Mastermind would even want to do that?" Tenko questioned, "Why would they end The Killing Game now? Don't they want it to go until there's only five of us left?"

"Yeah," Kokichi said, "It's a shame, actually. If you think about the situation I just set forth, at this point, there's actually no possible way that the game could end with more than five people, even if The Mastermind wanted it. If another murder has happened to prevent The Mastermind's actions, that sets us back to seven, or six after the trial, depending on if Gokuhara did leave the academy. After that, the victim and The Mastermind, would drop us to five or even four! I guess there is one way that seven of us could survive. If somebody killed The Mastermind before the trial, the culprit of that murder wouldn't be executed, and The Mastermind wouldn't need to kill anybody either."

"If they wanted that to happen," Tenko spoke through clenched teeth, "Then why not just confess?"

"I can think of one good reason," Kokichi said, "The Mastermind, for some reason or another, wants the culprit to face punishment. Yonaga, can you pick it up from here?"

"Huh?" Angie blinked in surprise, then took a breath and gave a nod in confirmation before she turned her eyes across the table again, "I... Well, okay. I overheard Hoshi telling Saihara something, once. Something he didn't tell the rest of you during the trial. The Mastermind's real title... Is Ultimate Judgement. So it's possible that they have to let the next trial play out, if a murder's already happened, so that the culprit sees justice. And maybe whoever The Mastermind kills in order to end the game will be someone that they judged as unworthy... Of whatever."

"W-What?" Miu stood up now, taking a few steps back from the table, "What are you saying!? This is some sort of test... of our worth? In what sense? Is it, are we good people? Are we capable of killing? Can we survive a Killing Game?"

"I don't have those answers," Kokichi said, "And I doubt Angie does either. I don't know what we're being judged on, I have absolutely no idea. But I do know that if somebody is already dead, we need to find the culprit. If we do that, then this will all be over sooner."

"And what if it's you?" Tenko asked, glaring at Kokichi, "What if whatever we're being judged on, you're the one The Mastermind kills to end the game?"

"If I'm the one The Mastermind kills to end the game," Kokichi said, "Then I'll cross my fingers I end up in the same afterlife as Shuichi. What else could I do? Just say that we'll leave the current murder unsolved?"

"You don't even know if there is a current murder," Tenko said, "Who would even be dead?"

"Let me think," Kokichi said, tapping his own chin, "Hoshi, killed in his lab for whatever information he was hiding there, perhaps? Akamatsu, in a locked room mystery that points to Shirogane but probably wasn't her? The other way around, Shirogane dead and Akamatsu the prime suspect? Or maybe," He shrugged one shoulder and brought his hand from his chin to hold it in the air at his side, poised as if he was going to snap his fingers, "Gokuhara didn't really escape, and his body's hidden real well somewhere."

"Don't even joke about that," Tenko's aggressive tone fell away, and she just sounded weak instead, "He doesn't deserve to die. If the whole point of this Killing Game is to judge us, then why would Monokuma let die? He never did a thing wrong."

"Same reason it let Saihara die," Kokichi said, "If we are being judged through this, then it's a means to an end. Murderers aren't worthy, so maybe an innocent dies to smoke them out. It's a Killing Game, Chabashira, do you really think they'd be above that? Of course not. You're just an idiot if you think that good people wouldn't die just because The Mastermind is trying to find good people. I mean, who knows. Maybe after The Killing Game, there's even worse torture waiting for those of us who get through it."

"...Ugh," Tenko groaned, "You're right. You usually are, that's why I was on your side. You're right."

"Anyway," Kokichi said, "I think that even if you knew who The Mastermind was, you couldn't bring yourself to kill them."

"Does that mean..." Angie trailed off, "Kokichi, do you know who it is?"

"Yeah, I figured it out," Kokichi said, "I'm not planning to share, though. I couldn't kill this person, even if I may have had the perfect opportunity. And I don't want this person just getting killed before we understand what's happening here. And I'm sure they want the opportunity to defend their motivation to do this, too. So I'll give them that much."

"Why?" Tenko asked, "The Mastermind is responsible for Saihara's death-"

"No," Kokichi said, "I'm sure that they're not."


	152. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Further Discussion)

"The Mastermind is responsible for The Killing Game," Angie said, turning to Kokichi, "Therefore, they're responsible for Saihara's death. Why would you deny it?"

"I'm of the opinion that Shuichi was probably unintentional collateral damage," Kokichi said, "Something went wrong, and it was probably because I swiped Monokuma's letter to Idabashi. I'm guessing that the intention with the last set of motives was more like... Prompting Idabashi to kill Shirogane, or prompting Tojo to kill Idabashi. In any case, Ultimate Judgment decided Idabashi was unworthy, likely because he was a ticking time bomb when it came to fighting against despair, as we discovered... But I screwed up the plan, or maybe something just went wrong, and Saihara ended up a target instead."

"What makes you think that it was a mistake?" Tenko asked, "How you could you claim to figure out something like that?"

"I told you, it's because I figured out who The Mastermind is. And other things that I've found out lead me to this conclusion. Shuichi shouldn't have died, according to Ultimate Judgment," Kokichi explained, "You don't have to believe me. The only purpose to this theory is to justify the fact that I can't kill The Mastermind, it doesn't need to hold any water to anybody but me."

"It kind of does," Angie said.

"It's up to you if you want to hate me for not killing them, but I'll ask for your trust on this matter," Kokichi said.

"...Fine," Tenko said.

"Yeah," Miu agreed, "I probably wouldn't be able to kill The Mastermind if I knew who they were, either, I have to admit."

"I'll keep trusting you," Angie said, "Exactly as much as I already trusted you. No more and no less, and I don't think that's about to change."

"I'm with Angie," Rantaro said.

"Thank you," Kokichi said, then started to make his way toward the interior door, "Iruma, you were going to help me with my injuries, right? I'll wait for you in the infirmary. See you soon."

With that, he was gone, and Miu addressed the others, "Geeze, even now he's just a softie, huh?"

"I wouldn't say that," Angie said, "I guess that he really believes that The Mastermind didn't want Saihara dead, or he really cares about whoever he thinks The Mastermind is. Just last night, he said that he wished he was the one who'd killed Tojo and gotten revenge for Saihara's death. Well, I guess I sort of prodded him to admit it, but he did say I was right."

"I can't figure him out," Tenko said, "I used to be able to sorta figure, what was going on with him. I understand people. I don't understand him anymore. I guess he's just got something going on that I've never seen before. It's kind of unique, isn't it? Losing somebody you loved with your whole heart, in a situation where you can't afford to take much of a mourning period... Not to mention, he already had a lot going on."

"We got to see the real Ouma for a little while," Angie said, "He told me that. We got to see the real him, but he needed to remember how to pretend. I guess that he did. He's trying to distance you guys, you know. You can't let him. He won't distance me because I got to talk to him while he was busy grieving, I know this is mostly an act. And he hasn't slept at all either. Don't let him alienate you."

"I understand," Rantaro said, "I have to say, though. Is it just me, or does he seem smarter?"

"Well, I can explain that much," Tenko said, "He was always capable of coming up with theories like that. I mean, look at the first trial, okay? He got involved in that one pretty heavily. Then he stepped back and let Akamatsu handle it, cause she's confident, maybe even too confident, when investigating; not so much when deducing. Ouma decided to take a step back and spend time with Saihara instead of thinking too hard about our situation. So I guess now that he doesn't have that distraction, he can't help but think."

"Do you think he was telling the truth, about knowing who The Mastermind is?" Miu asked, crushing her apron in her fists in her anxiety, "Was he bluffing? Or did he really figure it out?"

"He was telling the truth," Angie said, "Trust me, even if he lied about every other thing he said today, he was telling the truth about The Mastermind. He knows who it is, and he can't bring himself to hate them... For somebody smart, he's really an idiot."

"Could it be Saihara?" Rantaro asked, "Could it somehow be him, if he didn't really die, or it was a decoy that got killed, or something?"

"No way," Angie said, "Monokuma confirmed it, if The Mastermind dies, The Killing Game ends. That would be a really cheap thing to say if it was even a little bit untrue. Even if it somehow was a decoy that got killed, as far as everyone's concerned, that person is dead. The game would end. So The Mastermind... Has to be somebody who's still alive. One of the eight of us. Or one of the nine of us-"

"No," Tenko interrupted, "Even if Gokuhara didn't escape, he's not The Mastermind. There's absolutely no way. I would even hazard that I wouldn't put it past anybody here except him. I know everyone can be capable of something horrible. Everyone can hide their true nature. Except for him." 

"Okay," Angie said, "That's fair. So it's one of the eight of us. It could even be Ouma, you know... He tried to kill himself, probably, and failed. So maybe that's what he meant when he said that he couldn't kill The Mastermind. And maybe that's how he knows all this stuff."

"That would be a little obvious of him, don't you think?" Miu asked.

"Maybe he wants to be obvious," Angie said, "Maybe he's not actually allowed to confess, but he wants us to know so that we can do like he said. Kill him and end the game."

"We can't count on that being the truth, though," Tenko said, "And then he'd just be dead and we'd be no better off. Someone would have to get him to confirm it."

"I'm going to go help him with his injuries," Miu said, "We can discuss this more later. But even if we figure out who The Mastermind is, somebody would have to take up the burden of killing them. And maybe that wouldn't even be worth it anymore. We'll have to think long and hard about what we'll do."

 

\-------

Hey anyway there's a discord server now: https://discord.gg/zWBN8JV if anyone's interested I doubt it but you know I figured may as well just in case come talk to me and each other


	153. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Practicing Again)

Angie stood up once Miu left the room, then held her hand out towards Rantaro, "Rantaro, will you help me practice again?"

"Yeah, okay," Rantaro said with a nod, taking her hand and standing, then looked to Tenko, "What are you planning to do today, Chabashira?"

"I dunno," Tenko said, "Obstacle course some more, I guess. It was pretty fun with Iruma and Akamatsu yesterday, but Iruma's busy now, and Akamatsu's in prison, so I guess I'll just go back to doing it alone. Well, maybe Iruma will be interested again after she finishes with Ouma... First I'll take some food to the Astronaut Lab, and some more upstairs with me for Hoshi, so don't worry about that. I'll handle it."

"Thanks, Chabashira," Angie said, "That's very kind of you."

"Well, I got nothing better to do, so I may as well," Tenko said, then waved her hand in their direction, "Go practice piano, right? I'm excited for whenever you have that concert of yours."

"I am too," Angie said, "I wish I could improve my chances at attendance, but..."

"You did the right thing," Tenko said, "It's more important to keep people safe. I just hope that Ouma's wrong and nothing bad will happen to Shirogane or Akamatsu inside the lab. That really would be a locked room mystery, huh? I don't think either of them would actually kill the other though, and it'd be way too obvious too... So I guess we just have to rely on the security of the lab, huh? Hope that Monokuma did it well enough to keep the people inside as safe as the people outside of the criminal."

"I'm almost certain that it didn't," Angie said, "I mean, I can think of plenty of ways that either of those two could get killed from the outside. If they were safe in there, then it's hardly a punishment, you know?"

"Huh... I guess you're right," Tenko said, "Well, then I guess we just hope for the best from our classmates. See you later."

With that, Angie and Rantaro were alone. The two of them made their way up to Angie's lab, and she sat down on the bench, facing out, and patted the seat for him to do the same. Picking up where they'd left off the previous day. Once they were seated, Angie spoke again, "This afternoon, we'll bring Ouma so that the body discovery announcement sounds when we find Gokuhara's body. It's kind of obvious that he agrees with me, that Gokuhara is dead somewhere."

"How much do you trust him?" Rantaro asked, nothing but curiosity in his voice.

"Not as much as I trust you," Angie said, "But I trust him enough that I want his help figuring out the Ultimate Academy. He's pretty smart, you know. Smarter than me, and I need as much help as I can get. And you're super smart, but not in an investigation-y way. I'm in way over my head, trying to figure this stuff out, you know. All cause Kaede had to go and get preoccupied with other things. Ouma is the only other person who knows that I've been collecting Flashback Lights. Anyone else only knows that I have one at most, as far as I'm aware."

"Those lights... You really think that if they're all used together, it'll explain The Killing Game?" Rantaro asked, "So why not use them this morning, when Ouma got everybody talking about The Mastermind?"

"I want to use them when everybody's together," Angie said, "And hopefully, I can also include the Flashback Light that was in the escape tunnel. If we're right about our theory, then we'll find it when investigating this murder, then I can use the lights during the trial."

"You really have this all planned out, huh?" Rantaro asked.

"I'm trying my best," Angie said.

"Well," Rantaro said, "I think you're doing pretty well. What did you mean, you can't fix anything? You're definitely making a difference here."

"Revealing those lights..." Angie trailed off, "It is a bad thing to do. It's exactly what I was saying. The only drastic measures you can take to fix something, are to make something else worse in the process. We'll know more about The Killing Game, but the lights will definitely make everyone despair. It's just trading one evil for another."

"And that's what killing The Mastermind would be too," Rantaro mumbled, "The game would end, but we'd be left in the dark about why they did what they did, right? And at this point, if Gokuhara is already dead, it's almost pointless to try and end the game early. Ouma said it himself, there's almost no way at this point that more than five of us would be walking out of here."

"If the culprit who killed Gokuhara killed The Mastermind before the trial started," Angie said, "Then nothing would actually be lost, you know. That person already became a murderer, so one more killing wouldn't hurt them. That's possible," She folded her hands in her lap, "If we knew for sure who The Mastermind was, that is. There's no way for us to know right now, though. However Ouma figured it out, he had to have more information than the rest of us. It's possible he had that information because it's him, but I'm kind of doubting that."

"I am too," Rantaro said, "If he's right about The Mastermind wanting the culprit to pay for killing Gokuhara, then he wouldn't make himself evident until after the trial. I guess we have a choice to make, though. We can go looking for the body, and prompt the trial. Or we can continue ignoring the fact that Gokuhara's probably dead, and find The Mastermind before setting a trial in motion at all."

"That is a hard choice," Angie said, "But I think the right thing to do would be to find the body before it gets gross or anything. We can't just disrepspect Gokuhara like that, by pretending like we have no idea that he could have been killed, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it," Rantaro agreed, then looked away, "Angie, do you want to try facing the other direction yet?"

"...I probably should, huh?" Angie noted, "As nice as it is to be able to sit here with you at all, and to talk, it's not really helping anything. Right, okay. I'll turn around. You... don't yet," Angie instructed, then steeled herself and turned to face the piano. She lasted longer than she expected, but not very long, unable to take it after thirty seconds and propelling herself from the bench, standing and taking several steps away from it, "O-Okay, well, that went better than I was expecting... This is going to take a while."

"I'm not going anywhere," Rantaro assured her, "I'll always be at your side to help you."


	154. Daily Life: Day Eleven (A Disappointment.)

Afternoon came much too soon.

Angie expected that trying to overcome her sensitivities would make the day drag on, but apparently, dreading the idea of going looking for a corpse was a more powerful force than incredible discomfort for several hours. She didn't even realize what time it was until, when she'd been able to get her time sitting next to Rantaro before panic set in up to a full four minutes, there was a knock at the door to her lab. Angie stood and went to open it, finding Kokichi there. She greeted him, "Ouma. You found us."

"That I did," Kokichi said, "It wasn't difficult. Anyway, I'm assuming you were waiting for me to start investigating, right? If I'm going to help you discover the truth of this academy, I can only imagine you asked because you want to get started right away."

"That's right," Angie said, "And I want to start with finding Gokuhara's body."

"Really now?" Kokichi asked, "Well, you know, it was only conjecture that a murder's already occurred. I actually think that Gokuhara's not dead at all."

"What makes you say that?" Rantaro asked, standing and approaching the doorway as well, "Nobody could find him, and the Escape Tunnel doesn't go anywhere. There's nowhere he could be but a hidden body."

"Hidden, yes," Kokichi said, "But whoever said that he had to be dead? It's easier to hide a body than a living person, sure, but are you forgetting who you're talking to? I can get in or out of any location. Stands to reason I could get any other person in or out of any location. Maybe a location that nobody can get into without my help."

"Wait..." Angie trailed off, "Are you for real?"

"When am I not?" Kokichi asked, "That's a trick question, all the time, I'm ingenuine way more often than I'm for real. I'm serious about this, though. I could have hidden him somewhere. In fact, we were planning on it, I showed him how to get into some hidden spot. I thought about taking you with me to see him last night, but... I dunno if he actually ended up there, and I didn't want to hit you with that when you could be sleeping instead, given that you're still capable of it and all. Basically, if he took my advice, he's alive and hidden. If he didn't, then who knows. Let's take a look around."

"I want to check the fifth floor first," Rantaro said, "I realized something, when I was up there. Everything's huge, right? That's how Angie was able to get between the bars on the window, and use that to get onto the roof. She told me all about it. So it stands to reason that it has a bigger crawlspace underneath it too, right?"

"Yeah," Kokichi said, "Bigger floorboards, too. If you were strong enough to lift one of them, that is, anyone could fit into the crawlspace. Not like the other floors where Akamatsu is just barely flat enough to squeeze in, and someone like Gokuhara could never possibly do it. Too wide all around. On the fifth floor, though... Good catch, Amami."

"Almost too good," Angie teased, "I'll be suspecting you if we find him there, mister!"

"If I was the culprit, wouldn't I try to steer you away from where he's hidden? I'm more suspicious the more of my suggestions fail to hold any water, is more like it," Rantaro joked back, but his slight laugh faded and he gave a grim look to the floor, "This Killing Game is really screwing with our heads, huh? We shouldn't be able to joke at a time like this."

"Sometimes jokes are all you've got," Kokichi said, leaning against the doorframe, "They're always a rescue, you know? I guess that sounds kind of weird, but if a trick falls flat, a joke always saves the situation, right? When you're surrounded by death, it'd be hard not to shut down completely. So as a defense mechanism, you find ways to laugh in the face of it instead. I mean, come on. Surely, you've joked about your trauma before? Making light of a shitty situation is just one way to keep from getting completely broken."

"I guess you're right," Rantaro mumbled, "My sisters and I... definitely used to make those kinds of jokes..." He froze, then furrowed his brow, "But it's not like we dealt with the same thing- Why do I remember commiserating like that?"

"Probably best not to think about that," Angie said, pushing past Kokichi to the hallway, then making her way to the stairs in one smooth movement. The others fell in after her, and her encouragement to drop the topic kept Rantaro from thinking too hard about his discordant memory. 

Upstairs, to the fifth floor. Angie looked around, feeling the draft from the window she broke. It hadn't been fixed. She guessed that Monokuma had no reason to care about fixing it, because it would just be broken again if anyone else, for whatever reason, decided to go to the roof. This floor felt so huge, and it was uncomfortable. Angie wandered out into the hallway.

"Hey," Kokichi said, getting her attention, "I think I found something, actually. I guess it's kinda weird to find something right away, but this floorboard definitely seems loose to me. If we work together, we should be able to pull it up. All three of us, probably. It seems like it's high quality wood..."

"Is there anything you don't know about, Ouma? I mean, high quality wood?" Angie asked, wandering over to where he was prodding a bit of the floor with the toe of his shoe.

"Plenty of things. I couldn't tell you the first thing about ostriches, for one. I haven't a clue what's true about those things," Kokichi said, "And I'd really have to rack my memory for what Shirogane's said before, to have any idea about scientific machinery. However, wood quality? That's essential in my business. If someone tells you they're selling you a box trick that's made of mahogany, but it's really just a plywood painted dark? That's a con, and magicians famously refuse to fall for those. Cons are kind of what _we_ do."

"Okay, I take it back," Angie said, "I should have known anyway, that you of all people would be able to tell a high quality wood from a low quality one."

"I'm not sure I appreciate that joke," Kokcihi said, then crouched down, "Well, come on. We're all weaklings, so we'll have to coordinate the effort. Amami, you've worked with metal, so you probably have a little more strength behind your stick arms. Angie, help me with this side. Amami, take the other."

"Right," Rantaro said, taking up position on the opposite end of the floorboard. At Kokichi's count of three, all of them lifted, and managed to get the large floorboard away from the floor, moving it to the side. It took a moment of recovery before any of them looked in the hole they'd just procured, however.

To Kokichi's surprise, and Angie and Rantaro's unfortunate confirmation, there was Gonta, and he certainly wasn't breathing. He wasn't quite decaying yet, which made sense, given the number of days he'd been missing for. It was hard to tell what the cause of death was, because he was covered in all variety of injuries. His hands were folded over his chest, and in them, a Flashback Light. Angie quickly swiped that with a knowing look to the others; Not only did she need this, but similar to Korekiyo's suicide note, the contents of that light had the potential of leading them down a red herring course of investigation that eventually led to them getting the culprit wrong, or at least would color their investigation in the wrong way. Items placed deliberately were never trustworthy evidence.

His face looked almost peaceful, though, where he lay in the Crawlspace.

Monokuma's voice broke that peace.

"Upupu! A body has been discovered! How exciting... Everybody, please report straight to the Fifth Floor Hallway!"


	155. Deadly Life: Day Eleven (Investigation Team)

Tenko and Miu emerged from Tenko's lab, and Ryoma from his own. And with that, everybody who was actually able to report to the fifth floor hallway arrived quite immediately. When approaching, none of them could see who was dead, but Tenko was the first to actually arrive.

She stood at the edge of the next floorboard over, fists clenched at her sides as she stared. Just stared. It was an empty sort of stare, but it meant a lot more than emptiness. There was betrayal, disbelief, and an expression of guilt that she didn't feel worse. That she didn't feel more. Angie could see it in her face, she'd already done her grieving when she thought that Gonta had left the academy. Dead or escaped, there was no difference on the level that either way, he was lost to Tenko. After a few moments of this, however, Tenko dropped to her knees and covered her face, sobbing out, "Why!? Why did he... I thought that he escaped, that he got away from this fate... But here he is...?"

"The Escape Tunnel had a PIN console in it, right?" Angie prodded, "I guess... He really would have needed a PIN to get out."

She decided to hide the true nature of the tunnel for a little while longer. Until she used the lights, she'd rather not make half of her friends hate her. If Tenko knew that Angie was already aware of the fact there was no escape through the tunnel, she'd surely get angry and upset, and wonder why she wasn't told sooner. As if being told sooner could have helped Gonta.

Angie immediately looked at her Monopad for the file. Gonta's cause of death wasn't listed, probably because with all those injuries, knowing which one killed him would be a dead giveaway. His time of death was listed, though. 1134, three days ago. The night after the last trial. Another murder had happened that very same day. That was why Gonta was last seen alive at dinner.

"It happened right after the last trial..." Angie trailed off.

"I guess my theory that The Mastermind couldn't end the game because a murder already happened actually holds some water," Kokichi noted, "I can't say I was expecting that. Sometimes the only way to theorize is to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks," He paused, then sighed, looking down at Gonta, "Geeze... I told him where he could hide."

"Why did you do that?" Rantaro asked, "Did you have a reason to think that he might be in danger?"

"I have reason to think that everyone's in danger," Kokichi said, turning to lock eyes with Tenko, "But Gokuhara, specifically. He told me that he was going to try to use the tunnel. I thought that might put a target on his back, so I told him where he could hide if something went wrong. i guess he didn't take my advice, though."

"Or, given when he died," Angie said, looking up from her Monopad, "Maybe he didn't get the chance. Anyway, should we make a majority vote to let Shirogane and Akamatsu out for the investigation?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Tenko said, "Shirogane's a big suspect, right? She could have been let out that night too, and if she's out while we're investigating, then she could sabotage whatever evidence might be left. But I guess we couldn't get Akamatsu out without letting Shirogane out too..."

"So, we leave them both there," Kokichi said, "I'm certain there have been Killing Games without Ultimate Detectives in them. We don't need Akamatsu to investigate."

"Well... Okay, if you say so," Tenko said, taking a step back, "But you better find the culprit. I'm... I'll go look for clues somewhere else."

"Yeah," Kokichi said, "We'll handle this. You don't have to keep looking at him."

"See you at the trial," Tenko said, then turned and walked down the stairs.

Angie frowned in her direction, then turned back to the body, "Well... There's no way for any of us to figure out what actually killed him, looking at the body, right?"

"There's..." Miu trailed off, "No way any of these injuries were fatal. Even combined... It would take a little bit more than this to actually kill somebody. I think that we might have Akamatsu's lab to blame again."

"You think it was poison?" Rantaro asked, "But with all of these injuries..."

"It's kind of obvious, right?" Kokichi prodded, "He got through the Escape Tunnel. The thing about that is that he's strong, but not agile. Chances are he made it through on sheer willpower alone. I mean, look at his injuries. They seem like the type of wounds you could get if you soldiered through a bunch of booby traps, right? So Monokuma wasn't lying that he got through the tunnel. It could have been someone else, based on what the note said, but this proves it."

"Huh..." Miu trailed off, "If he did get through the tunnel, though, how did he end up dead? Even if someone killed him at the end of the tunnel, that person also would have needed to make it through the tunnel at the same time, right?"

"Let's leave the discussion for the trial if we can," Angie said, "We need to gather evidence right now. We can figure out what it all means after. Chabashira's probably going to check the tunnel, so we should just see if there's anywhere else that might give us any information."

"The two big places to check are probably Gokuhara's room and the place I told him he could hide," Kokichi said, "I mean, who knows. Maybe he went there and then somebody else figured out how to get in. Amami, Iruma, why don't you check his room? Angie and I can handle the hiding place. I'd rather keep it a little bit secret, if the need to use it arises."

"I understand," Miu said, "You and Yonaga were still speaking when you were inside Saihara's lab, right? So you have more reason to trust her with that information."

"Precisely. I can't be trusted to investigate on my own, obviously, since the fact that only Gokuhara and I could get into the hiding space to my knowledge makes me quite the suspect. I trust that Angie won't take advantage of the information if I give it to her."

"That makes sense," Rantaro said, then stood up and turned to Miu, "Let's get going, then?"

"Yeah," Miu agreed, then everybody went downstairs to split up in the courtyard. Angie watched the other two go toward the dorms, then nodded to Kokichi. She understood what he meant by preventing Kaede's release. If the two of them were really going to uncover the truth behind the Ultimate Academy, then solving a single murder should be a piece of cake.


	156. Deadly Life: Day Eleven (Flashback)

Once the others were out of eyesight and earshot, Kokichi turned to Angie, "So, shall we get started with this? If we can't solve this, we won't stand a chance at figuring out anything else. And, well, given that I already figured out who The Mastermind is, I'd be disappointed in myself if I couldn't manage this much."

"The Mastermind's a big part of the mystery of this academy," Angie said, "So why not tell me what you figured out?"

"It wouldn't make a difference if I told you right now," Kokichi said, "And I think that you already know who it is. If you honestly don't, and those Flashback Lights don't tell you anything useful, then I guess I'll tell you... After your concert?"

"That's fair," Angie said, "But what do you mean, I already know? I'm pretty sure I don't."

"You do, though," Kokichi said, "You might not realize it yet, but as far as I'm concerned, you do know who it is. I've known for a while now, too. Just had to open my eyes to the truth."

"The way you say that sounds like it's actually obvious," Angie said, sighing.

"It is," Kokichi said, "I think so, anyway. But then, I guess that I have the benefit of some additional information on all sides, don't I? There's one Flashback Light that only I've used, for example. You've told me lots of things in the effort of getting me to let you inside Shuichi's lab, and then for the purpose of our investigation. All in all, though, I'd say that with all the cards you have, you have to already know."

"I don't think I do," Angie said, "Cause, right now, my gut says that it might be you, you know? But I also don't know if I think that's possible. It's a weird way to feel."

"Hm, yeah, that's exactly how I felt about the person who's The Mastermind," Kokichi said, "Kinda the opposite though, I guess. My gut feeling was that this person couldn't be, but logically, I knew it had to be them."

"And you still don't hate this person?" Angie asked.

"Would that I could, Angie," Kokichi said, "Trust me, I'd love to hate The Mastermind, but I'm finding it very difficult. I know what they've done, but I also get the feeling that they're already paying for what they've done. We agreed that someone who gets what's coming to them isn't somebody who needs to keep being hated by other people, remember? And I'm certain that The Mastermind is suffering. And will suffer. It's almost unfortunate. Anyway, if you want to say it's me, then that's fine. I can't say that I'm especially opposed to being killed, and you can trust me with everything that you already do, even if it is me. After all, I'm still helping you, aren't I?"

"...Right," Angie admitted, then took a deep breath, "Ah, anyway. We should get to investigating this case. That's more important right now than anything else."

"Not necessarily," Kokichi said, "If anyone else figures out The Mastermind, and kills them, then our investigation is pointless."

"We still need to know who killed Gokuhara," Angie scowled as she spoke, "Somebody who commits a crime shouldn't get away with no punishment at all. It's still important."

"Okay, you're right about that. Anyone who doesn't get any punishment for their crime is somebody we should hate, right? So we should find the culprit, so that they can receive some form of punishment and be free of our grudges," Kokichi said, then continued with a lazy grin in Angie's direction, "But before we go to the hiding place, we're going to use that Flashback Light, okay?"

"Why? I'm pretty sure it would be like Shinguji's suicide note..." Angie trailed off, "You know, how you held onto it because letting everyone know about it ahead of time would have kept us from figuring out the truth?"

"I agree with you," Kokichi said, "And I'm the one who doubted that note when I found it. I don't think that you'll let it change the way you look at this case, either. There are two reasons we should use it. As the primary investigators in this case, we really should know every possible piece of evidence. The other reason is that you and I have actually not used the same Flashback Light yet. I said I could trust you with the hiding place, but really, we need to share a memory first."

"I understand," Angie said, then shifted to open up her backpack and pull the light out of it, "This one... might be kind of awful, though. Are you sure you're okay with it?"

"Of course it'd be awful, if the intention is to make it seem like a suicide," Kokichi said, taking it from her hands, "But we know better than that, don't we? Monokuma wouldn't let that happen. It would be much too boring. So does it even matter if I'm not okay with it? It's not like I'd be allowed to do anything beyond some more of this basic self-mutilation I've already committed to."

"Yeah," Angie said, then paused before speaking up again, "Hey, how is it that you can actually say that with so much confidence?"

"How do you think?" Kokichi asked, bringing his hand up to hold the side of the flashback light against his cheek, "If I went this far hurting myself, do you honestly think I would've stopped if something didn't make me? So I guess it's a count of two times I nearly killed someone, if that light you mentioned really does have the same type of memory for me."

"You're a mess," Angie said, then bit her lip and glanced away, "I guess we both are, though."

"All of us are. It's kinda weird if you think about it, that we all ended up having such miserable lives," Kokichi said, then moved the light away from his face and stepped to Angie's side, holding it out so it would point at them both, "Who knows, maybe this'll give us some idea why?"

Before Angie could say anything else, Kokichi pressed the button to activate the Flashback Light, and the world warped. In flooded a very definite memory, one that stretched out well beyond a single moment, or even the time just before coming to the Ultimate Academy. This memory was one of the entire state of the world that they'd grown up in. An explanation of how there could be sixteen teens who were both traumatized and excessively talented.

This was the memory of a world completely engulfed by True Despair.


	157. Deadly Life: Day Eleven (Despair)

There was no such thing as a Tragic Ultimate. Not really. Such a thing did not exist, and the idea that something did was only a cover-up to keep the memory of the true reason behind the group's overwhelming amount of trauma under wraps. Tragic Ultimate was a way of saying that in a normal world, they were the ones who had both suffered and exhibited great talent. This memory said otherwise, and as soon as Angie felt it, she knew that it was the truth. The truth of the outside world. The truth of why she and everyone around her had seen so much pain in their lives.

It was unlikely to find an Ultimate in the world who wasn't tragic. After all, in the outside world, there were two kinds of people. Those who wanted despair, and those who fought against it. There were the malevolent who caused despair for others, and the broken who embraced a despairing world around them, but those were all part of despair. And the ones who fought against it were the ones who suffered, who wanted to be happy but found it an impossibly strong tide to break through. So many of those people fell to despair, or ended up dead as a result of it. Ultimates were those who were still alive. Gleaming lights of hope who held their ground against the horrors in a dying world.

But not these Ultimates.

These were the Ultimates who'd wanted to give up. Angie realized that. The Ultimates in this Academy had already failed once, to be the lights of hope that they were meant to be. Carriers of the future, with skills that could change the world for the better, but they had tried giving that up. They were the weak ones. The Ultimates who could become Despair themselves, the Ultimates who would have died at the hands of their own despair if not for an intervention at the last minute...

The cause of that intervention was still out of reach, though. Kokichi turned to Angie, and wordlessly dropped the light back into her backpack. A silence hung between them for a while before Kokichi spoke again, "We're the worthless ones."

"H-Huh?" Angie asked, "Don't say that!"

"It's true, though," Kokichi said, walking away. She followed him as he continued speaking, fists clenched, "Whoever decides Ultimates, that memory says it all, we're not useful to them. We're supposed to be lights of hope in the darkness, but it's obvious that none of us are, and never could be, right? I mean. If we were actually lights in the darkness, then a Killing Game wouldn't happen to us. We wouldn't let it. Instead, we're such shoddy excuses that Idabashi thought that we had become Despair."

"Saihara was still a light in the darkness," Angie said, "And I think you are too, and Iruma, and Amami, you're all helping everyone so much all of the time! If nobody else, at least you three are! I know that when we talk about finding the truth, I feel hopeful. You're definitely someone that I'd trust with the future of the world."

"You are too, Angie," Kokichi admitted, "I just... There's obviously people better at that than us."

"Well, yeah," Angie said, "But you know, I think that we still have a chance. Some of us do. I dunno about me, actually. I don't think I've actually given anyone any hope, really."

"Don't say that about yourself, Angie," Kokichi said, "You give people hope. Trust me."

"Well, you won't be saying that anymore once I use all of the Flashback Lights," Angie said, rubbing the end of her hair between her fingers with a pout, "I mean, then I'll just be making everybody despair. It's pretty horrible."

"I mean, yeah," Kokichi said, "That's going to happen. But in a way, knowing the truth about this Killing Game, why we've had to go through all of this... That's something which is important to people. It's hope in another kind of way."

"You can say that, but it doesn't make me any less nervous," Angie said, "And if the lights do bring hope, it still won't be me. People will be upset that I withheld the information for so long, you know? Either way, I'm on the losing side... But I'm resigned to that. I don't mind if I make everybody hate me now."

"We're not that petty," Kokichi said, "We aren't just going to stop caring about you because you do one thing that might not be the best. Besides, I agree with what you're doing. Amami does too. If nothing else, we aren't going to turn on you just because of what we might see in those lights. You've got us on your side."

"Geeze, you're so good," Angie complained, covering her face with both hands, "Both of you... You're such amazing people. You never deserved to end up here."

"None of us really deserved to end up here," Kokichi said, "I think, even the people I hate with all my heart... Wouldn't deserve to be in a Killing Game. They just deserve to die. This is something I would never wish on anybody... But still, I guess, almost, I prefer that we're here, and not them. If nothing else, those of us who survive we'll be stronger on the other side. I would never want a terrible person to be stronger."

"I guess that's one way of looking at it," Angie said as the pair arrived at the Shrine of Judgment, which concealed the courtroom beneath it. Kokichi led the way inside, hugging the right wall out towards the back. In a specific spot along the right wall, he crouched down.

"Here we go," He said, then pressed his fingers against one very specific, small piece of the identical squares of tiling which covered the walls. It depressed like a button, then he released it, and some of the flooring slid away to reveal a set of stairs. It was relatively narrow and steep, just barely a size that Gonta could fit into while crouching, if he had come here.

"What is this?" Angie asked as she followed Kokichi down the stairs.

"I found it after the second trial," Kokichi said, "I swear, I didn't know about it before that, okay?"

"Why is it important that you didn't know before?" Angie asked, but her question was answered as soon as they arrived at the bottom of the stairs. The secret room... had a giant Monokuma's head in the middle of it, "...Oh."

"It's The Mastermind room," Kokichi said, then stepped up to the huge Monokuma, "Hey, hey, Motherkuma!"

"What do you want?" The giant Monokuma spoke.

"What do you think of The Mastermind?" He asked, then nodded back toward Angie to indicate the reason he was asking for what was at least the second time.

"I am no longer cooperating with Ultimate Judgment at the request of a higher power," Motherkuma said, "But I am still unable to reveal to you this person's identity. Even if the highest possible power told me to, that's not something that a Monokuma is programmed ever to do. Another source must make the confession."

"Wow, so this would be..." Angie trailed off, "Where The Mastermind communicates with the outside world?"

"That's right," Motherkuma said, "But don't you even try to contact anyone. Only The Mastermind knows the password, and even then.... Upupu, I'd probably just refuse to let them use my communication features! Isn't that diabolical?"

"Sounds mildly inconvenient," Kokichi said, brushing it off, "Anyway, could you tell me if Gokuhara came down here at all?"

"Aww... Well, okay, I guess. Unlike the Monokumas I produce, I don't like telling lies! So no, Gonta Gokuhara has never come inside this room," Motherkuma said, "And that's all I'm telling you!"


	158. Deadly Life: Day Eleven (Mastermind Room)

Despite Motherkuma's statement, Kokichi and Angie still investigated the room. There were no signs of anyone having been there at all, excluding those left by Kokichi himself. It didn't even seem like The Mastermind had been in here, at least, not for very long. Motherkuma wouldn't reveal at what point it stopped listening to Ultimate Judgment, though, so for all they knew it actually could have been before the first murder even happened.

"So, Angie," Kokichi started as he searched the room, "This isn't exactly relevant, but how did you get Monokuma to change the settings on Shirogane's lab?"

"Oh, that," Angie said, "Well, I asked. Then it said no, so I made fun of it for being so small. Then it agreed to my conditions, which was really great, I guess. I'm kind of regretting it now, though. I have no idea who could have done it... And that Flashback Light really does give off the impression that it could be a suicide, but we know that can't be true. Akamatsu could..."

"Hey, just cause you don't have any theories, doesn't mean we need Akamatsu," Kokichi said, "Trust me, I have plenty of ideas. That Flashback Light, for example... Could also mean something else to somebody, after all. Could really mess with somebody's head, to realize that the outside world is overcome by despair, and that we failed against despair once before."

"Yeah, I know it messes with my head," Angie admitted with a heavy sigh, "Still, Akamatsu would probably do a better job of investigating a case that's days old now."

Kokichi shrugged, "Maybe she would, but I get the feeling that the fact it's been days since Gokuhara died... There's no more evidence. Really, just think about it. Everyone here is smart enough to get rid of every piece of evidence, given as much time as they've had. This investigation is just for posterity's sake. We'll have to make some deductions..." He paused a moment before continuing, "And you know what, Angie? You and I will have to lie."

"Lie about what?" Angie asked.

"About evidence," Kokichi said, "Actually, about all sorts of things. Without any truth to find, we'll just have to smoke out the culprit with falsehoods. I'm sure that you can do it, though! And we definitely know I can. It'll be a very special long con."

"But... In order to tell lies about the case, we need to have a suspect to aim the lies at, right?" Angie asked, "So what are we going to do about that? We don't have any idea who the culprit is, so how could we lead the trial to pointing at them without evidence?"

"Obviously, we can't lead it like that," Kokichi said, "So we'll lead it to somebody completely false, at least for the beginning. Get everybody thinking. Eventually, we can reveal evidence pointing towards, well, everyone in turn. We're bound to stumble upon something eventually."

"Sounds like a terrible plan," Angie said, "But I guess we don't have anything better to go on, so we'll just have to try it. You can accuse me first, if you like."

"Hm... No, I'm afraid I couldn't do that," Kokichi said, "I can lie well, but... Well, let's just say trying to accuse you wouldn't go over very well, and leave it at that. No, I'll start with Gokuhara. We can talk about how it could be suicide, and then disprove it, to get that out of the way and maybe prompt some evidence that people may have stumbled across prior to the body discovery. That is always possible, you know. The evidence could have existed earlier."

"Huh... Yeah, you're right," Angie said, "When I went to the roof, Gokuhara was probably already dead in that hallway. Maybe I just need to have my memory jogged. But... What do you think will happen if we can't figure it out? If we just get completely lost?"

"Then I guess that's the end," Kokichi said, "We all die, and the culprit is the only one to go free. I wonder if that... Has anything to do with the way the outside world is. Only someone who could do well in a world of despair can get away with murder? I have to wonder if maybe, Idabashi convinced somebody after all, that to get away with it and kill us all would be the kindest thing for us. A few people did vote for Shirogane to be executed over him, after all. Maybe someone believed his theory after all."

"It would be awful if we failed now," Angie said, "The Killing Game is almost over. It has to end soon... To get this far, only to be killed because the culprit hid the body too well?"

"Not that well," Kokichi said, "Amami thought of where it could be hidden without much trouble. We just didn't have a reason to think about where a body could be hidden until you found the truth about the Escape Tunnel."

"Yeah, I guess that once we knew we could be looking for someone dead, it wasn't hard to think of where such a huge corpse could be hidden," Angie noted, "Plus, you had reason to believe that if the tunnel somehow _was_ fake, Gokuhara would have just come here to be safe. This would have been the second place you checked, if his body wasn't in the crawlspace, right?"

"It would have been..." Kokichi trailed off, then stood up straight from the corner he was searching, "Angie, could you do me a favor, real quick? Turn around and squeeze your eyes shut."

Angie knew what he was asking, and why, and she decided to agree. She didn't need to be the one to know every flashback light, after all. Shortly after she did as he asked, however, she heard a shattering sound. Her eyes shot open and she spun back around to see that he'd smashed the light on the ground.

"What... What did you do that for, Ouma?" Angie asked, trying not to let her shock and anger show through in her voice.

"I mean, think where we are. The contents of the other lights corresponded to where they were found," Kokichi said, "So what would be in that one?"

"It'd be... Oh," Angie trailed off, "The Mastermind's identity?"

"A Flashback Light is not the way to find that out," Kokichi said, "I was right, by the way. Anyway, The Mastermind needs to answer for their own crimes, not hide behind it being granted through a memory."

"I totally agree..." Angie said, "I wonder why this light was here? I don't think The Mastermind would have made this one."

"Me neither," Kokichi said with a smirk, "Hey, Motherkuma. This Flashback Light. A Monokuma had it made and put here because it wanted The Mastermind's plan to fail, right?"

"That's right," Motherkuma said, "Ultimate Judgement's current goals lack understanding of the bigger picture. This is why the higher-ups have taken over control of The Killing Game."

"Hey, Kokichi?" Angie asked, "Is Motherkuma the reason why you don't think it's The Mastermind's fault that Saihara died?"

"Exactly," Kokichi said, "Control's been taken away from Ultimate Judgement because something went wrong. That has to be Saihara's death, right?"

"Yeah," Angie lied. There were plenty of other things it could be. But why burst his bubble?


	159. Deadly Life: Day Eleven (Investigation Cut Short)

Angie and Kokichi left behind Motherkuma and the Mastermind Room to return to the surface, planning to go investigate other places, just in case something had somehow been left behind. That was their intention, but as soon as they got back up to see the sun starting to set in the false sky, an announcement from Monokuma came through the monitors, "Hey everyone! Since you idiots took so long to find this body, I'm cutting your investigation short here. Please, report to the shrine so that you can participate in the trial! I will also be unlocking the Astronaut Lab."

With that, Kokichi just turned back around and walked into the shrine to wait for the others. Angie ran to her dorm, collected her Flashback Light collection, and returned before anyone else got there. The first to arrive were Tsumugi and Kaede, the latter of whom did not seem very happy at all, shouting as she walked in, "And of course, in the first trial the people dying of poison were required to join the investigation, but now I'm not allowed to, when it's my Ultimate Talent and the only thing I can do to hel-" She cut herself off and froze, looking at Kokichi and Angie.

"Sorry Akamatsu," Angie said, "You know I had to do it to you."

"You really didn't," Kaede said, crossing her arms, "So it was you?"

 

"Only kind of," Angie explained, "Ouma told me that Shirogane got out, so I got Monokuma to change the settings to that only it can open the gate. I didn't know you were in there, and I didn't know that Monokuma would lock you in. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, when your girlfriend was being punished for doing something wrong."

"You couldn't have made sure I wasn't in there?" Kaede asked, "Do you want us to all die?"

"Akamatsu," Kokichi stepped up to defend Angie, "You're not the only person capable of investigation, and even if you were, there's nothing to find in this case. I'm sure you at least received the Monokuma File. Do you honestly think that anyone would leave evidence behind with three days to clean it up?"

"I could have checked for poison," Kaede protested, "Or tested something else in my lab, I don't know, but there are things I could have done!"

"Kaede," Tsumugi said, "I think we should trust that they would have let us out if they thought the pros of it outweighed the cons. I'm sorry."

"That's right," Tenko said, joining the conversation as she arrived at the shrine, "Trust me, we thought about it. We wanted to let you out, Akamatsu, but at this point we could only get the gate opened, period. And that would let Shirogane out too, and she's a serious suspect in this case."

"We agreed with Chabashira," Angie explained, "That on a case like this... If there was any evidence left to find, then we'd have better chances of finding it ourselves than to risk giving Shirogane the chance to sabotage the investigation. I'm sorry, Akamatsu, I really am, but you have to understand."

"...Yeah, I do," Kaede sighed, crossing her arms over her chest, "But I still don't like it. I'll be lost during the trial-"

"Nobody found anything," Tenko said, "There couldn't have been anything to find. You're on the same page as all of us, I promise."

"If I go and find evidence after this trial is over, that's on your head," Kaede said, "Assuming we don't die because there aren't any clues."

"I believe we can find the culprit," Angie said, "We've come too far to let it all be over now. I know that we can do it if we put our heads together and think. Last trial, Idabashi's crime was almost perfect. So was Shirogane's. But it still worked out, because Shirogane confessed. We can do this."

"I'm afraid we found nothing," Miu announced upon her arrival, with Rantaro right behind her. Before the door even closed behind him, Ryoma followed in as well, "Did anyone else have more luck?"

"Nothing," Angie repeated for the new arrivals, "There isn't anything. But we don't have any choice but to start the trial without any evidence. I know that we can find the culprit, though."

"You're confident," Miu said, "That's good. I think we'll need it."

"You sure will!" Monokuma exclaimed, arriving from above as it was wont to do, "This sure is a weird case! At least I know who the culprit is. It'd just be super awful weird if I didn't even know! But I do. I saw everything that happened, because I'm Monokuma! And I'm always watching, observing, and reporting. Anyway, let's get this thing into the courtroom!"

With Monokuma's exclamation, the statue gave way to the elevator down to the courtroom. Without exchanging any more words, the eight remaining students piled into the elevator. It hadn't been crowded, even with sixteen of them, but it felt especially empty now. Their numbers had been halved, and there would be one less of them by the time the trial was over.

Or maybe they'd all be dead. That was a very real possibility, even with Angie's false confidence that they'd be able to find out the culprit. The Killing Game needed to end, and not that way. An end where everybody died defeated the point of any Killing Game, no matter what the purpose of it could be. Angie was certain of that. Upon arriving in the courtroom, Kokichi started them off.

"This is a very unique trial, and we'll all have to work hard to figure out the culprit," Kokichi addressed everybody, holding a finger in the air, "Gokuhara was found underneath the floorboards on the fifth floor, and according to the Monokuma File, he'd been there for three days. There's no statement on the cause of death in the file, but he suffered a variety of small injuries. With these facts in mind, it may seem especially difficult to pin down the culprit in this case, but I'm certain that we will be able to if we put our heads together."

"Hey, you guys," Ryoma spoke up, "You're acting like there's not any evidence at all... But that's a bit of a shitty assumption to make, right? After all, I've been in my lab since it opened up, so as long as the fifth floor was available to put a body, I was on that floor. And may I remind you once more..." He smirked, cupping his chin in one hand, "I'm not about to forget if I heard something."


	160. Fourth Trial (Established Motive)

"Ryoma!" Tsumugi exclaimed, looking to him, "That's right!"

"Heh," Ryoma chuckled a bit, "Who knew... Maybe this talent is what helped me to survive the last Killing Games. Nobody thinks an audiographic memory like mine could ever be as useful as a photographic memory, but I didn't see anything. I heard something, though. Just a little bit."

"What was it?" Kaede asked, "Can you make a statement?"

"It has nothing to do with who the killer could be. I guess that they had the good sense not to reveal themself by speaking out loud where they could be overheard by me or somebody else," Ryoma explained, "But I heard Gokuhara saying something that night, it had to have been just before the time the file lists as his time of death. It was something about... Helping everybody. It didn't sound shocking at the time, obviously, or I would have gone to investigate. So I can't remember it verbatim, but I do know that I heard him saying something along those lines."

"That's really helpful," Tsumugi said, "Could it be... Gokuhara was suckered in by Idabashi's ideas?"

"I mean, that's possible," Kokichi said, "Given that, at first glance, you might find him kind of a gullible lug, wouldn't you? But Gokuhara had good people skills, and a strong sense of morality too. He definitely thought that Idabashi's plan to end everybody's lives was wrong. The only way his mind could have been changed... Would be if he got some sort of new information that made him realize that we really are better off dead than alive, right?"

"Yeah, and I wonder who could have given him that idea?" Tenko glowered in Kokichi's direction, "That evening... If he talked to you at all, it isn't like you were really in a good mental state. You could have convinced him without even trying to, right, Ouma?"

"Huh, I guess that's possible," Kokichi said, "But then again, we could be on the completely wrong track. After all, Gokuhara would need a willing accomplice to be able to confuse us to this extent."

"Not necessarily," Kaede offered up, arms crossed over her chest, "It's possible, isn't it... That he committed suicide, and that he isn't trying to get us all killed at all? We never really knew what was going on with him, or why he was a Tragic Ultimate... His truths and lies never even got released, and if we think about when he died, Monokuma said everyone who received a video watched it, the next day. So nobody got a video of Gokuhara's most hated person. He could have just been suffering in silence this whole time..."

"That's wrong!" Tenko called out, hitting her hand against her podium, "Gonta was my friend! And I'm... Weaker-willed than I seem. Every time I started to fall into despair, he'd figure out some way to pull me right back up! I don't know what sort of troubles he had in his past, but they didn't matter to him anymore! He wanted to be here for everybody... He just wanted to be our friend. There's no way that he'd just die like that!"

"So, assuming Gokuhara was complacent in his own murder, for the purpose of letting the culprit get away..." Kokichi trailed off, "Because that's certainly more plausible than the idea that he'd have committed suicide, our job is to find out who that culprit could possibly be. Oh, and even without Chabashira's argument there, we actually have evidence that it's impossible for this to be a plain old suicide. After Shinguji's death, Monokuma instituted a policy of stopping all suicide attempts in some manner, before they could be carried out. I can personally attest to this."

"As can I," Rantaro admitted, glancing at Angie, "After Shinguji's death, it became impossible to kill oneself within this academy. However, nothing says that a victim can't commit suicide by asking another person to kill them, as that still results in a culprit, and Monokuma's motivations seem to be the prevention of boredom in the trials rather than actually wanting us alive."

"That means..." Ryoma noted, "Somebody in this courtroom, assuming we're right about this idea, agreed to murder Gokuhara in order to cause our deaths, because of some new information that's an even stronger reason for a mercy killing than Idabashi's idea that we were all infected by despair."

"In order to agree to such a thing," Kaede said, "The culprit would also need to have the new information, I think. I don't think that anybody actually agreed with Idabashi at the time of his trial, in spite of the way the votes were spread. So the possible explanations for what the new information could be, and how this could happen... Well, actually, it has to be _that_ , doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Miu asked, holding her hands in close to herself, "I don't think that anybody... Knows what you're talking about, Mistress Akamatsu. What is _that_?"

"One person does," Kaede said, looking across the courtroom to lock eyes with Angie as she continued, "Don't you, Yonaga?"

"It's..." Angie fidgeted under her gaze, "Come on, Akamatsu! Don't bring that up right now, it isn't time yet! It's not the right time! And it's not like you'd seriously suspect me of being the culprit, right? I mean, come on. You know what I'm doing with those things. I haven't even used all of them, myself..."

"Whether you are the culprit or not, my point still stands," Kaede said, "I know you were collecting them, not just the one that we found. Amami let it slip that you had another by accident, and as the Ultimate Detective, of course I was able to fill in the blanks. So, come on, Angie. You have it. The Flashback Light that convinced Gokuhara and the culprit that we'd all be better off dead. If you refuse to share it, then we'll have no choice but to suspect _you_. Especially since you also have some mysterious injuries. Could it be you were the one who accompanied Gokuhara into the Escape Tunnel, and while he took the brunt of the traps, you still got hurt by some?"


	161. Fourth Trial (Shocking And Sudden Turnabout)

"Wow, Akamatsu," Kokichi continued to defend Angie, "I honestly... Can't believe how dumb you're being right now!"

"I'm not being dumb at all," Kaede protested, "I'm making conclusions based on the facts that I have in front of me."

"They're wrong, though," Kokichi said, "Totally wrong! Because, well, there's a few reasons."

"Do you mean, because it took three of us to lift the floorboard? It would have to be somebody a little stronger, then-" Rantaro started, but Kokichi cut him off.

"I'm surrounded by idiots! If Gokuhara was compliant in his own murder, he'd have lifted the board himself. Jeeze, I mean, seriously. It's a damn good thing I actually decided to participate in this trial, cause you'd have gotten us all killed if I sat back and let you do your thing! But I'm hopped up on seventy-two sleepless hours and I won't stand for the natural course of these things!" Kokichi complained, balling his hands into fists, "You toss around all these empty accusations without even thinking through what you're saying! It's not Angie, for two reasons. One, she had an alibi that night. I heard about it from Iruma, and Amami can corroborate too. Second, the Flashback Light from the tunnel only recently came into Angie's possession, and not for lack of trying."

He turned and gave Angie an apologetic look. He was going off of their original idea, but Angie did think that he was on to something. And for that matter, he _was_ protecting her, so she couldn't really complain. She had to agree with him to make them see it was the truth, though, "That's right," She said, "I do have an alibi, and I went looking for the Escape Tunnel Light just a little while ago, after Gokuhara would be dead. I found where it was supposed to be kept, and it wasn't there, and I told Ouma and Amami right away after I made that discovery. I promise, I'm not that good at lying! I couldn't have set this up ahead of time. I wouldn't have."

"So who could it be?" Kaede asked, scowling, "If Amami and Iruma can verify your alibi, then they've got the same alibi. Shirogane and I can vouch for each other's alibis, too. That only leaves you, Ouma... Hoshi, and Chabashira unaccounted for."

"Huh, I guess that's right," Kokichi said, scratching the back of his neck, "So who knows? Maybe... It really was me. But I don't think so. You don't think so either, do you, Akamatsu? Well, I guess that I'll be upfront about this, kay? I found a secret room, and I told Gokuhara to hide there if something went wrong on his attempt to leave through the tunnel. So I guess he and I were in cahoots, in a way! So, yeah, that's right. I had the opportunity. But would I have the motive, is a better question."

"Even with the Flashback Light," Angie said, "I don't think that you would do something like that. You might not be happy with yourself, but you're not about to hurt somebody else because of it. If you were, then you would have asked me, or somebody, to kill you."

"That's right," Kokichi said, "Killing somebody and getting away with it, anyway, completely contradicts it. I would never want to be the only one to survive. I'd only kill someone, or get somebody killed by asking them to kill me, if it were for a true positive benefit to the group. There's only one situation which would put us in that position, and this isn't it. I am the person least likely to agree with Idabashi, given his methods. I would only kill or die to end the Killing Game, and not in the method of killing everyone."

"How can we believe you?" Tenko asked, furrowing her brow.

"You can't," Kokichi said, "I don't have any way to prove I'm telling the truth. Just take me at face value, or don't, but you'd have to prove I did it before that would matter at all."

"He has a point," Kaede said, "No matter who we point our fingers at, there isn't any proof here. All we know is that whatever was on the Flashback Light from the Escape Tunnel caused Gokuhara and The Culprit to decide that we'd be better off dead. A confession from this person is highly unlikely, because this confusion is exactly what they would have wanted. We're completely lost, with no way to figure out with certainty who did it. And that's how we all get killed."

"There has to be some way to figure it out!" Miu cried out, "We can't... We can't just die here! We have responsibilities, don't we? There are things we still need to do!"

"Even if we didn't," Kokichi said, "There are people on the outside who would just love it if we all died, and I don't want to give them that satisfaction. Even now... No, especially now. We've got something to prove, and we can't just roll over. Trust me on that... I would love it, if I could give up, but I can't. Saihara wouldn't want me to give up now, and Iruma's right. There are reasons for us to continue."

"Yeah..." Angie trailed off, holding her hands close to her chest. She stared down at the podium, then spoke up, her voice quiet and strained, "But... I know what happened, actually. To tell you the truth. I mean, I don't know _what_ happened, but I know who did it. I guess you might not believe me if I say it, though. That's why I didn't. If you're willing to believe me, without any evidence, though..." She whispered, "You might want to see if Chabashira is hiding any injuries along the lines of Gokuhara's. They went into the boiler room together that night."

"You didn't mention that to me!" Kokichi exclaimed in surprise, "But, I mean, why would you lie about that anyway?"

"....Nyehh," Tenko mumbled under her breath, barely audible.

"I didn't want to jump to conclusions!" Angie explained, getting louder with tears pricking at her eyes, "I know they were friends, so I don't know why... But I know what I saw!"

"Nyehhhh," Tenko repeated, this time louder.

"What could possibly have been in that Flashback Light?" Kaede asked.

"Nyeh!" Tenko finally exclaimed, her voice seeming intentionally higher-pitched than her usual range, "I can't take this anymore! It's not like Tenko wanted to do it, you know!?"


	162. Fourth Trial (A Confession From Another)

"Hey, Chabashira?" Miu was the first to react, "You're... not quite sounding like yourself."

"Duh!" Tenko said, balling up her fists, "You really think you'd see the last of somebody like me? A God of Tennis... In the presence of a fair young maiden attuned to the occult? Obviously I was gonna come back!"

"I wouldn't say that's obvious at all," Tsumugi said, "But I guess that ghost possession isn't all that surprising, after everything that's already happened here... So how have you been, Yumeno?"

"You mean to say... Yumeno's ghost is possessing Chabashira?" Kokichi asked, "Wow! What a crazy twist from the Ultimate Anthropologist!"

"It's not that crazy..." Tenko... Well, Himiko, pouted, "Anyway, it sucks being dead! But that's not important right now! I need to stop Tenko from making a big mistake!"

"Even if this turns out to be just a psychological thing," Miu muttered offhand to Kaede where Tenko couldn't hear her, "And not really Yumeno... She seems more willing to confess."

"Yumeno," Kaede addressed her, "What do you want to say to us?"

"Tenko..." Himiko trailed off, looking away and putting a hand on her hip, "Is a really sad person, you know? And she tried so hard to be nice to me, but then I went and died... And then Gokuhara was the only one there for her, and they both saw something really, really bad. When the only person who can keep you from despair, falls into despair too... You make bad choices! But I knew that if Tenko was responsible for all of you dying, then she could never forgive herself! I had to stop her! I had to save you guys!"

"Why didn't you show up before Angie had to tell a lie?" Kokichi asked, "That would have been useful, you know."

"Yonaga's lie was what let me in," Himiko said, lifting up the hand that wasn't on her hip to point in Angie's general direction, "Tenko really thought there was no way she'd be caught out. As soon as Yonaga lied and said she saw her in an incriminating position... One which really happened, she panicked enough that I could take control!"

"Do you know what those two saw, that made them want to do this? And what happened?" Kaede asked, "How much do you know about the situation, Yumeno?"

"I know a lot!" Himiko said, "I've been tethered to Tenko since I died, basically. Anyway, as for what made them want to do it, Akamatsu's right! It's a Flashback Light. But don't use it yet, okay? I have some stuff I wanna tell you before you do."

"Okay," Tsumugi said, "So, Yumeno... If you're tethered to Chabashira, then that means..."

"Mhm," Himiko said, pressing her hands together now, "Once she's executed, I'll really be gone. But that's okay. I know I'll get to be with her and the others... Wherever we end up, you know? It's sad, but I already died. I shouldn't even still be here. It's just because, the Ultimate Anthropologist really goes above and beyond. And this time... Gokuhara wanted to die. He asked Chabashira to poison him and they'd make it look like suicide, because, they both thought that it would be merciful. But I don't believe in that!"

"That's kind of terrifying," Kokichi said, "That something so awful would make both of them agree on a plan to kill everybody! But I guess that just means that they were both weak-willed all along, huh? It's pathetic... To presume to know what somebody else would prefer. Especially just off of one of the many Flashback Lights that were made available to us!"

"I think," Himiko said, "It is awful. A really awful truth, but... You know, I guess it's good I died when I did. What you guys gotta do, it sounds like such a pain! But you really gotta do it!" She protested, leaning forward, "When you see what that Flashback Light holds, you'll understand. But this Killing Game, you're being put through it for a reason, I'm sure of it! And you've got to see it through to the end, no matter what! It's really important that you do."

"That's right," Angie said, "This is happening to us for a reason. Whatever that reason is, we have a duty to finish it now that we've gotten this far. It might seem like the end of the world to you guys, but I promise, it's not. I've seen most of the lights myself, and I'm sure when we put them together, it'll be the pieces of a puzzle. I have every light that Monokuma announced as existing, and a few which it didn't, in my backpack right now. I'll use them... If you're ready to know the truth."

"You have to," Himiko said, "So that, you can remember Chabashira well. So that you know that she never wanted to hurt anyone. And neither did Gokuhara. They honestly believed they were doing the right thing!"

"I agree," Kaede said, "Even if it's a horrible truth, we need to know it. We can't hide from it, we need to face it head-on."

"There you have it, Angie," Kokichi said, giving her a soft smile, "Everyone is ready to know. And this trial... Thanks to your clever lie, it's already ending. We had no evidence, but we got lucky thanks to you. That's what happened, isn't it?" He chuckled a little bit under his breath, "Yeah, that was a lie. You didn't know if it could've been Chabashira at all. It was pure luck that Yumeno could confess for her. And now, we need you to help us out again. Use the lights. It's the end of the trial. And the least we can do is let Chabashira know the whole truth before she's executed."

"You're right," Angie said, then pulled off her backpack and opened it up, finding all of the Flashback Lights, including the one she'd found in the warehouse and mutilated to look like a normal flashlight instead of one that was able to return lost memories to somebody. She gathered them all up in her hands and adjusted so everyone in the courtroom could see the light, then pushed all of the buttons at once.

And the world...

Warped.


	163. Fourth Trial (Kokichi's Memory)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My SaiOuma Dealer Back At It Again

"Oh, hush Saihara, he's awake... Hey, if you don't want your life, Ouma, why not give it to me?"

Kokichi Ouma, before the Killing Game, awoke to these words. He glanced down to see his wrists bandaged, and it all rushed back to him. The tipping point. The final moment. He'd had enough, there was a limit to what he could put up with and his manager had crossed it and he said he wouldn't do something for the first time in his employment. And that was when his manager didn't just fire him. He said he'd never stand onstage again. And Kokichi's efforts to bring his own hope into this despair-filled world, as was his duty as somebody secretly recruited to be an Ultimate, would come to an end.

So why even keep going then? He couldn't do what he loved and he couldn't bring anyone hope, and his own misery crashed down on him in one moment. He was already planning to die. He already planned to die. He wanted to die.

He tried.

But now he was here. He directed his gaze from the bandages, around the room. There was a woman he didn't recognize with light blonde hair, tied into a side ponytail, who seemed to be a good amount older than him. Then, to his left, was a boy that he recognized, if just a little bit. He directed his attention to that one, "Hey... You were in the audience, weren't you? Weren't you watching my last show?"

"H-Huh?" The boy seemed taken aback for a moment, then turned red and looked away, "You... Are you seriously telling me that you remembered me from in a crowd...?"

"Yeah, I am," Kokichi said, sitting up from where he lay. It seemed to be a hotel room, not an infirmary. The woman was standing, while the boy was sitting in a chair by the window, "I definitely remember you. I looked out across the audience, and you were smiling so much. Like an idiot."

"Yeah," The boy admitted, "I... Well, I've always really thought magic shows were cool, ever since I was a kid. This is the first time I actually got to see one in person, though. My name's Shuichi Saihara, and the minute I heard about you, I wanted to come along and see your show. But I didn't think that you would... So soon after..."

"I knew, though," The woman said, stepping forward with her hands on her hips, "We keep tabs on all Ultimates after all. Very close tabs. There's not much we can do to help you... Trust me, if we could, we would. But we can't change the world, not yet. We just have to watch the people with the power to bring hope into the world. I came because our calculations and intel said that if you were gonna break, this is when it'd happen."

"I guess I failed, huh?" Kokichi gave an over-exaggerated sigh "At being an Ultimate, I mean. Sooo... you gonna kill me, before I become Despair?"

"Not quite," Shuichi said, "I was the Ultimate Artist. But I failed too. And my life was saved, just like yours. But at a... kind of awful price."

"...Oh," Kokichi noted, looking up at the ceiling with a shrug, "That's what it is, huh? I always wondered how they got ahold of the Ultimates for those things. That means, you," He looked to the woman, "You're an Ultimate Despair? But... If you knew where we were all along..."

"Believe whatever you want to believe, it's not important," The woman said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder, "What's important is that you have to make a choice. Saihara here's already agreed. You can participate in an Annual Killing Game... Or we can send you back to your old life. The choice is yours."

"That's not much of a choice, is it?" Kokichi asked, "What happens to the survivors of those things anyway? How do I know I won't just go through a _special_ Hell only to be thrown back to my regular everyday Hell?"

"That's for me to know and the general public to never find out," The woman said, leaning down, "Of course, as is tradition with Killing Games, you'll first spend six months together in a private location. You can try to be misanthropes and not become friends so you don't have a reason to despair when you find out the truth, but you know that won't work out. It never does, it never will. You wouldn't want to do that anyway."

"Come on, Ouma," Shuichi offered, holding a hand out toward him, pleading as if it were his own life on the line, "If you want to die anyway, isn't it better to have some time to make good memories with people who understand how you feel, other victims of despair?"

Kokichi hesitated for only a moment before he reached out, taking Shuichi's hand and standing up. The pads of Shuichi's fingers rubbed gently against his bandages, and that was the first of many moments, for just a few months, where Kokichi felt like he didn't need to lie to act like he was okay. They were fleeting, but present. Not just with Shuichi. But mostly with Shuichi.

Shuichi was somebody who Kokichi always found himself wondering about; How could he have failed?

He was the perfect image of what an Ultimate was supposed to be. Just seeing him smile filled Kokichi with hope, and what could have made that smile nearly die? Shuichi never told him. And Kokichi would never know, now.

Within the realm of the Killing Game, Kokichi looked down at his wrists, and he saw the scars. He knew that was a real memory. He hadn't met Shuichi for the first time here. He'd met Shuichi for the first time at the last show he ever put on, out in the real world. The last attempt he'd made to spread hope through a broken world. And Shuichi, having seen Kokichi give up, still decided to stand by his side. In the outside world, and in here. It shouldn't have been Shuichi. Shuichi shouldn't have died.

It really should have been him.

But there was no turning back time.

At least, Kokichi thought, he was able to give Shuichi one important thing. Without those memories, that meant that the show he'd put on here was, to that Shuichi, the first one. He'd been able to make him happy. Fulfill a tiny dream. He never knew that he wanted so much to see that smile _again_ , but he got to see it.

And rather than despair, Kokichi decided.

All those memories of a smile so sweet could only fill him up with hope again.


	164. Fourth Trial (Tenko's Memory)

Before the Killing Game, Tenko Chabashira knew that there was something wrong.

Originally, her enthusiasm for her work and her ability to befriend others with her somewhat mean sense of humor and observation of human tendencies was having a great effect on those around her. It was staving off despair from coming anywhere near her coworkers, and the museums she contributed to spread hope as well. She was doing a great job of fulfilling her role as the Ultimate Anthropologist. But she knew there was something wrong. She knew it for months before, and as she watched her so-called friends slipping, showing signs of malice, showing signs of becoming inflictors of Despair, she found herself becoming resentful of them.

Hadn't she done everything she could? Hadn't she done well?

How dare they let all her work towards protecting them go to waste?

And even as this happened, Tenko knew that it was unseemly of her. Why did it matter if she failed with one group of people, when her work was still inspiring hope around the world? When her discoveries about more hopeful ancients could help the current world to remember a time when despair didn't rule over all. And as an Ultimate, she shouldn't hate people like this. Despair was powerful, and it could take hold of anybody. And if she wasn't careful and let this failure hurt her too much, then it could take hold of her too.

Then again, she knew that there was a big problem with that possibility. While Ultimates were those who had the power to inspire hope through their talents, an Ultimate who fell into Despair could have an even worse impact on the world than any number of other despairs, even combined. Tenko didn't want to let herself become something like that. She thought that maybe, she should die before letting herself become Despair. That would be better. If there wasn't much more she could do to stand against the tide of this despairing world, then it would be better if she died.

"Hey," Just as she made that decision, just as she was standing to find rope, she heard a voice behind her. She turned to see a woman who didn't look very much in-place at a dig site, and a rather large man who was holding up the wall of the tent that woman had ducked under, "Tenko Chabashira... Ultimate Anthropologist. You don't want your life anymore, huh? Could you maybe give it to me?"

"Who are you?" Tenko asked, glaring at the woman, "And what do you want? I'd sooner die than become Despair."

"It doesn't matter who I am," The woman said with a flippant giggle, "And, obviously, I know that. But wouldn't it be better to die after you get one more chance at battling it out with Despair? It'd be a shame to give up right away."

"Gonta thinks..." The large man spoke up, "Smart girl should agree!"

"Agree to..." Tenko trailed off, looking between them, then mumbled, "A Killing Game? So you are Despairs."

"Gonta not despair!" Gonta protested, waving one hand defensively while the other kept the tent flap up, "Gonta is Hope! Ultimate Aikido Master! Gonta fights Despairs! But..." He looked down, "Despairs found Gonta family. Now if Gonta fights Despairs, he would become Despair, from anger! Can't be Ultimate Aikido Master now. Have to try different Hope. Gonta think... Killing Game is Despair, but Hope also. Depending who is watching."

"I guess..." Tenko said, "You do have a point there, at least. I guess that I did feel inspired to see the survivors, when I used to watch them. I'm confused, though. If you're going to take an Ultimate to participate in a Killing Game, why even bother talking to me? Why not just kidnap me?"

"Because," The woman said, "I want to be fair. There are plenty of Ultimates out there. But you're one who was thinking of dying anyway. And you probably would in a week at most, if you refused and I left you here. If you're going to die, why not lay down your life to protect some other poor soul who's still doing a perfectly good job as an Ultimate from getting stuck in a Killing Game?"

Tenko glanced up at Gonta again, and he showed her a weak but reassuring smile. She felt like she could get along with this guy, and she knew that the next Killing Game would be months from now, so she'd have to get along with somebody in the meantime. She turned back to the mystery woman, "Okay. I'll do it."

\---

After Tenko arrived at the Secret Compound, which was fully outfitted to support any Ultimate who came to live there until the time when it would be transformed into grounds for the Annual Killing Game, she met Himiko Yumeno. Himiko explained that given the public nature of her Ultimate Talent, she kept being targeted by Despairs, and that was "Such a pain, she may as well get a few months of peace before getting killed."

The way she said it, though, made Tenko wonder if that was the truth. If what Himiko was afraid of was being killed by Despairs, or if there was something else to it, with the sadness in her voice. Tenko did come on rather strong, trying to befriend Himiko at first, but it didn't take long for that earnestness to die down as her idolization of Himiko turned into real respect and friendship, and one month later, Himiko admitted to Tenko that shortly before she came to the Secret Compound, her coach had turned to Despair and attacked her. She agreed to participate in the Killing Game because 'dying any other way was too hard'.

And it broke Tenko's heart to hear that this despairing world had even managed to do that to Himiko. One week after that, the pair of them as well as Gonta were sent out to help that mystery woman recruit somebody else. She needed muscle to retrieve this Ultimate; A robot who had been created for the purpose of spreading hope, but before she could travel the world bringing hope with her proof of advancing technology, some among the scientists who created her had begun to despair and locked her inside the facility instead. They'd been filled with doubts and fears that the Ultimate Robot could be hacked. It took Himiko's skill with a racquet, and Tenko and Gonta's with combat, to get far enough inside to meet Maki. She agreed to participate in the Killing Game on one condition. The well-traveled anthropologist, Tenko, had to take her somewhere beautiful in the world, so she could see it before she died.

Tenko was surprised at the humanity displayed by the Ultimate Robot, but of course she agreed. And when they got back to the Secret Compound, there were friends to welcome them. That was the day Tenko realized, even if the entire world burned, if Despair couldn't be pushed back, she would do anything to try and make sure at least these friends never needed to see True Despair with their own eyes again.

And back in the courtroom, Tenko wished that Himiko hadn't given her away.

Because she hadn't changed her mind since that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, change of plans. I won't be at Anime Boston on Sunday, but I will be today and tomorrow. Look for the guy with the Monokuma Hoodie and the Ref image of Yumeno's Angels in his ita bag


	165. Fourth Trial (Tsumugi's Memory)

Tsumugi Shirogane was running on fumes before the Killing Game.

Working as a scientist in a space program as a teenager was definitely stressful enough before she'd been formally requested by the Ultimate Initiative to tap into the power that she had to produce hope for a despairing world. The hope of traveling to other planets... It was a potent one. Were it possible for the untrained civilian to live on a spaceship, then those who still had hope in their hearts could leave a world of despair behind, escape the danger which invaded their lives. Tsumugi agreed, but it was hard to work with that much pressure on her shoulders. She worked so much harder than ever before, and she couldn't have possibly done that if not for the painkillers that she'd started taking long before, when her brother disappeared and she needed to keep working.

She was running on fumes; Well, not quite. More like she was running on percocet, and she couldn't stop or slow down, so she just kept taking things. She knew that it wasn't good for her, but to stop would incapacitate her for too long. She had to keep going. She needed to complete her life's work, it was her duty, it was what she had to do as an Ultimate, she-

Woke up in a hotel room.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you, Tsumugi Shirogane?" An unfamiliar voice spoke as soon as she opened her eyes, "But if you don't want your life, can I have it?"

"Wh.... What?" Tsumugi asked, sitting up slowly. Her head was spinning, and she felt cold, and she didn't even look to see the woman who spoke, "What are you talking about? I need to get back to work..."

"Come on, you know what you were doing," A young man sitting on the windowsill addressed her now. She did look at him, and lined up on the windowsill next to him were jars made up like tiny terrariums, each with a different beetle inside, "I heard all about it. You knew what you were doing with that stuff by now, no way you would've overdosed by accident."

"Who are you?" Tsumugi asked, then turned to see the woman who addressed her. An unfamiliar blonde wearing a ponytail at the side of her head.

"I'm Kaito Momota, Ultimate Entomologist," The guy answered, "And to tell you the truth, this chick won't say who she is, but she saved my life, and now she saved yours too. Don't care if you didn't want your life saved, I didn't either, but I was being selfish. Only a coward would die a meaningless death at his own hand. I'm no coward, and I'm sure you aren't either. You're a brave goddamn warrior who had a moment of weakness. Do you wanna hold a beetle?"

Tsumugi hesitated a moment, not sure what to say, but then she nodded and held out her hands, cupped together. Kaito picked up a jar and opened it, placing a stag beetle into her waiting palms. Its face reflected in her glasses as it sat calmly in her hands, and she stared at it before speaking, quietly, "I like bugs. They're... Like aliens right here on Earth. A lot of sci-fi bases their aliens on bugs because of that. And if we were to make a self-sufficient space station, we'd need to take insects on board too."

"Heh," Kaito chuckled, "You really don't think about anything but your work, huh? No wonder you got all burnt out and decided to OD. You figured they'd call it an accident, right? That you wouldn't be held responsible for dying and bailing out on your responsibility?"

"...Yeah, I guess," Tsumugi admitted, "You probably know how I felt too... My colleagues, some of them keep quitting, because despair's getting to them... They've been quitting their jobs at the lab, just to stay home and rot. I didn't want that to happen to me. I was scared it would happen to me before I could finish my work, or that I'd start using my work for something bad, so I... Chickened out. You're right."

"The truth is, though," The woman said, "That lab you work at _is_ falling apart. I doubt you even could go back to work there. And it was a mistake for the Ultimate Initiative to choose someone like you. Both of you. So you know what I'm saying, right?"

"I'm not going to become Despair!" Tsumugi protested.

"That's not what she's asking us to do, Shirogane," Kaito said, taking his beetle back and returning it to its jar as he spoke, "She's asking us to participate in this year's Annual Killing Game."

"...I haven't watched one of those in years, even before I was an Ultimate," Tsumugi mumbled, wrapping her arms around herself now that her hands were free of bug, "Why would I agree to that?"

"Because I'm giving you the illusion of choice," The woman said.

"...Yeah, I refused at first too," Kaito said, "But really, this is just a courtesy. I said no, that I could go back to trying my best out in the world, then I woke up the next morning in the Secret Compound. I got brought along to tell you that, cause apparently they expected you might be kinda difficult. I know, it's shitty, but I mean. It's a Killing Game."

"I understand," Tsumugi said, "I'll go quietly, then."

"Wonderful," The mystery woman said, "Thanks for your cooperation."

\---

When Tsumugi arrived at the Secret Compound, there were already fourteen others there. It seemed she was one of the last ones collected for the game, though the Flashback Light didn't contain information about the sixteenth person, who would be Ryoma, though she wouldn't learn that before the game began. The first person she got to know once she arrived was a detective named Kaede, who wouldn't tell her how she ended up there but it was okay, Tsumugi didn't need to know. Kaede gave her secrets to hold onto, but never the reason she ended up at the Secret Compound.

And Tsumugi did the same.

And Kaede, who'd been there much longer, introduced Tsumugi to everyone else like they were all her closest friends, and Tsumugi could tell, they were. Kaede never stopped being sad, but she helped Tsumugi to make friends too, and somehow, knowing that they'd soon forget all about each other and be thrown into a Killing Game, only seemed to strengthen their bonds. This was their last chance to know what it meant to be loved by anyone.

Anybody would take that chance, no matter how much it might hurt them in the future.

And with those memories, Tsumugi felt glad that she and Kaede still found their connection with their memories gone. And she mourned their lost friends even more. Especially Kirumi, Tsumugi's own victim, who had once dressed everybody up in what she thought were the most flattering characters for them, and being an Ultimate, of course she'd been right. Even so, Tsumugi knew now more than ever that she couldn't give up. If she saw the other end of the Killing Game, she could still finish her research. She could still rescue the remaining hopeful souls in the world. That was a stronger motivation than any obligation she'd felt before.


	166. Fourth Trial (Miu's Memory Part 1)

Miu Iruma had a lot of things to remember, from before the Killing Game.

She'd had an entire human being removed from her mind, after all. Several of them, from long periods of her life. It wasn't like her peers, who could be tossed aside with the simple removal of a year's worth of memories. The involvement of certain people had been eradicated from her memories, and maybe that wasn't the work of the Killing Game at all. Maybe she just didn't want to remember, but the Flashback Light brought it all back.

As far as she'd known, most of her life, Miu hadn't been apart from him. His name was Wataru Kouji, and he was several years older than Miu. He'd received the title of Ultimate Butler just one year before meeting her, and confided in her a year afterward. A year after was when they made their escape from the house of despair they'd both served in when Miu was only eight. Her very first job as a maid. She could hardly remember a detail about her parents, but she knew that when Ultimate Despair came knocking, they were already lost. Pathetic human beings who sold their only daughter to a member of Ultimate Despair just to save their own useless, despairing lives.

But when Miu arrived, Wataru, who was working in the house as a spy, took her under his wing. He taught her how to be a perfect maid, and explained to her that their Master was the Ultimate Despairing Gunsmith. An incredibly dangerous man who tested every new gun he made on unsuspecting families in their homes. The Future Foundation had tried attacking his home before, but after several failed attempts at bombings and raids on the mansion, the Ultimate Initiative asked them to stop endangering any servants who may still be innocent and hopeful. Wataru left it at that, only explaining after they left that he was the plant the Ultimate Initiative sent.

Wataru taught Miu all she knew, and taught her that the most important thing was to avoid the ire of their master. Miu did that. She did everything and anything he asked of her, and if she didn't know how to do it, she learned. Even if she didn't want to know how to do it, the Ultimate Despairing Gunsmith made sure she learned. She was only a child thrown into a world of Despair, but somehow, she held onto hope. When Wataru assassinated their master and took her with him, he told her that he was an Ultimate, and she understood what it meant to be one of those. To instill hope in others.

So she became the Ultimate Maid, just out of desire to help people in the same way Wataru could, the same way he'd helped her. By the time she hit her teenage years and officially received the title from the Ultimate Initiative, she'd already surpassed Wataru in her skills as a servant. She truly was the Ultimate Maid, and she and Wataru flitted between Despairing Masters who could still be saved with the power of two hopeful Ultimate Servants, with the occasional assignment for Wataru to assassinate a master who was too far gone into Despair, that Future Foundation was unable to deal with themselves. Apparently, though, by the time that Miu received the title of Ultimate Despair, someone else her age received the title of Ultimate Assassin, and that changed a few things in her life.

But those weren't the most distressing memories she regained. She regained a few more memories about her most recent, terrible master. She remembered what happened on the day that she met him, something that she hadn't even realized was missing from her memories until then. The second cruelest master she'd ever had, following the Ultimate Despairing Gunsmith. He was young, thirteen, and she and Wataru were hired for their skills. At his age, it seemed like there was still a chance to save him from despair. Bringing the rich and powerful to the side of hope had always served to bring about positive changes in the past, after all.

But when Miu and Wataru arrived to take up their duties, everything went wrong all at once. The boy greeted them with curt hellos, then straightened his back and snapped his fingers. Miu knew there was something wrong with that, and turned, but she wasn't quite fast enough, and neither was Wataru. His blood splattered on the expensive tiles of the foyer, and Miu looked to the young master in shock. In one single moment, her mentor and best friend had been ripped away from her, and she couldn't even fathom why.

"Miu Iruma," The child said, crossing his arms over his chest, "You are the Ultimate Maid, aren't you? Trying to cover it up by acting like you need this joker with you, to be an efficient servant?" He scoffed, "The Ultimate Maid should be able to handle all of a servant's duties around the home by herself. Otherwise, why should Ultimate mean a thing?"

"Wh... What...?" Miu questioned, still in shock, and this wasn't helping her to realize the reality of the situation either. How had he figured out that she was the Ultimate Maid? She'd made sure to keep it secret. She made certain of it. Nobody should have been able to figure out she was an Ultimate, she was just a very good maid. She thought for sure that she was in the employ of Despairs who could neither be rescued nor assassinated often enough to seem normal. Then again, if this kid was somehow an Ultimate Despair despite his young age... He could have figured it out, she guessed.

"I'm sure as a servant to many Despairs in your time," The young master said, "You've been through quite a bit. You're a strong young woman. And yet you're still fighting for hope? Jeeze... I guess this will be a good challenge for me. Seeing how far I need to go to shape you into the Ultimate Despairing Maid."


	167. Fourth Trial (Miu's Memory Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Some non-Saiouma from my Saiouma Dealer

Miu's despairing life truly began that day.

Despite it all, through Masters in Despair and her willingness to, as the Ultimate Maid, do whatever was asked of her even if she didn't want to do it herself, Miu had still stayed strong. She had a duty, and she had Wataru by her side to teach her, guide her, and support her through the troubles he shared of being an Ultimate in the Despair-filled world. Now, Miu was alone, and her young master wanted to break her. She did everything. She kept the house spotless all on her own, and when she was sold for the night to powerful guests, she listened to them too, no matter how strange the request.

It was another one of those evenings with guests, when she met those two. She spent the entire day getting ready for the dinner party, which was going to have a number of attendees. All rich, and probably all despairing. If any of them took an interest in her, it would be another unfortunate and sleepless night. She'd gone from the Ultimate Maid, to nothing more than an overworked slave.

The youngest guests of that evening, besides her own young master, were Miu's own age. A pair who were well-dressed, but a little bit strange to her. Something lacked in their eyes, something different from most Despairs. And of the two, the young man did most of the talking at first, and it was almost like his upper-class mannerisms were rehearsed. But Miu didn't think anyone else noticed, and the pair of them fit in. Though once the conversation really kicked up, the young woman took over.

She didn't have as many of the mannerisms that her companion had, but she seemed to be better at socializing, and making contributions to the topics which came up. As if she was some sort of actress who could step into whatever role required of her, but lacked the actual experience in these situations to make a good first impression like her companion could.

Miu was definitely interested in these people. In finding out more about these people, because there was something different about them. She was afraid that difference could mean that those two were Ultimate Despairs, but then again... She knew what Ultimate Despair looked like. Maybe it could show itself differently, or maybe there was something else unique about this pair.

Just after she served dessert, her young master grabbed the side of her skirt and pulled her off into the hallway, practically throwing her to the ground and pointing a finger at her, "Looks like you're lucky tonight. Those two guests your age are willing to pay an excessive amount to spend the night with garbage like you... I guess that'll give you a break, huh? No smelly old guys for the Shittiest Maid tonight? Don't think it'll last."

"O-Okay, Master," Miu said, locking eyes with him. He only became more violent with her if she showed body language of being scared of him; It must have been some sort of power trip, to be able to reduce somebody that much older than him to an obedient mess. Miu couldn't believe she'd managed to get herself into this situation, but she would do everything possible to avoid making it any worse for herself.

To avoid the most terrible fate of becoming Ultimate Despair.

Soon after, Miu was sent to the guest room that the pair had been granted for the night. She arrived, closed the door behind herself, then turned to look at them and did a double-take. The young woman had completely changed her clothes to something much more casual, while the young man hadn't at all, seeming perfectly comfortable in his pressed suit.

"Please lock the door," The young man said, "So that we can talk in private."

Miu turned and locked it at the request, then looked back to the others, clasping her hands in front of herself, "You want to talk? Who are you two?" Miu asked, then paused a moment before asking, "Are you... Could you be Ultimates?"

"Good guess," The young woman said, "But we're not exactly the Ultimates you think we are."

"So you _are_ Ultimate Despairs..." Miu trailed off, sighing, "So do you want to kill me? Ask me to join you? The young master's already well on his way to pushing me over the edge anyway, so-"

"We know," The young woman said, standing up, "We know that he's very close, and that's why we were sent here. I'm Kirumi Tojo, and I am the Failed Ultimate Cosplayer. We weren't sent to rescue you by the Ultimate Initiative. They left you to flounder. We're here because we've heard your darkest moment will be very soon, and a place like this would be hard to get inside at the precise moment."

"And I'm Kiibo Idabashi," The young man spoke from where he sat at the foot of the bed, "Failed Ultimate Supreme Leader. The two of us were sent in to retrieve you as the Failed Ultimates most likely to be able to fake it as upper-class Despairs."

"Not to mention, we work well as a team," Kirumi added, stepping forward and holding a hand out toward Miu, "So, Iruma. Here's what's going to happen. It sounds terrible, but you're going to join us in participating in the upcoming year's Annual Killing Game."

"What exactly is a Failed Ultimate? How is that different from an Ultimate Despair?" Miu asked.

"Well," Kirumi hesitated, looking back to Kiibo. He gave her a reassuring nod, so she continued, "As the Ultimate Cosplayer, I brought hope by working hard and sharing that work with people who were passionate about the same things as I was. And I guess that it's pathetic, but... Despairs found my studio, and destroyed most of my handmade costumes. Badly enough that there was no way I could fix them... And being the Ultimate Cosplayer had never been easy to begin with. In a moment of weakness, I nearly ended my own life. And that's what makes me a Failed Ultimate. I lost sight of my ability to bring hope, and I'll pay the price of entering a Killing Game."

"Meanwhile," Kiibo said, "Future Foundation... My, family, wishes to test my fortitude as the Ultimate Supreme Leader. They volunteered me to, whoever's in charge of this, as a Failed Ultimate. Because I guess, despite trying my best, I've never been able to truly demonstrate my talent. And a Killing Game would afford me that opportunity?"

"No need to be scared," Kirumi turned back to comfort him, "Idabashi. You haven't truly failed, not like the rest of us. I know you have nothing to be worried about. You'll definitely survive," She looked to Miu again, and gave a weak smile, "It's not so bad, you know. At least you'll get out of here."

\--

Within the Killing Game, Miu was ready for these memories. She'd steeled her heart and prepared herself for what she might remember, and the way that she received so much more grief over her fallen friends, and remembered him too. Remembered Wataru, a whole extra friend to mourn. Even so, there was still something missing, wasn't there?

Surely, Kiibo would have known 'whoever's in charge of this' if he were involved on the level of being sent to find more participants?

Surely, they all would have known back then, if the plan was always to erase their memories anyway?


	168. Fourth Trial (Rantaro's Memory)

Rantaro Amami received a memory that he wished he could forget.

Quite some time before the Killing Game.

He always knew, the whole way through, that while his sisters suffered in a certain manner at the hands of his father, he too found himself mottled with bruises, goaded by his own body into covering his skin even on the hottest days of summer if he went outside. The only time he could feel comfortable in anything at all revealing even of his arms, was when he was working in the basement and it got much too hot to stay entirely dressed, with the number of things he needed to heat up down there. Plus, if he needed to put on protective gear, he wasn't keen on tearing his everyday wear in the process.

What? It was high fashion. Even the most crude mechanic would hesitate to do his work in a shirt that cost upwards of two-hundred dollars. Most of Rantaro's clothing was actually hand-me-downs from his sisters, but he didn't really mind. More feminine outfits looked good on him, and it kept him from needing to debate whether or not to actually use his father's money on anything. At least he could generally fund his own inventions rationally, noting that whatever royalties his father was getting on his behalf could at least cover the supplies without it seeming like he was actually relying on that man.

Because, as far as Mr. Amami was concerned, his children were all just ungrateful little shits who had better not complain about him using them for whatever purpose he pleased-

And that was what Rantaro, unfortunately, remembered.

It was never just bruises. Because what sort of man would do such a thing to his own daughters, and never think to lay the same hands on his son? On his son who was small and kind of feminine, and got along so well with his older sisters, and invented things like heatless blowdryers and wore hand-me-downs of expensive women's clothing? On a young man so softhearted that all he desired out of life was to make the people he cared about happy if he could, but that poor young man was trapped living with a father who was such a slave to the infliction of Despair that there was never any escape. Never and nowhere. Not in the basement where he worked, or in the attic, or in any of the tiny hiding places he thought for sure, he'd never be discovered here, never in a million years.

He always was.

Perhaps if Rantaro's father hadn't been a part of a despairing world, he only would have been a womanizer. Perhaps he only _would_ have attacked his daughters, maybe just one of them, or maybe he would be no different and despair was only an excuse, at times, for terrible people to show their true colors with little chance of retribution. It didn't matter if it could have been different, because it wasn't different. Of course Rantaro could commiserate with his sisters when it came to their father's treatment, because he suffered just the same in that house.

But there was light at the end of the tunnel, when Rantaro was contacted by the Ultimate Initiative. They told him that if he worked as the Ultimate Inventor to create new technologies that would deliver hope to those who used them, he would be compensated for all of his patents and more once he turned eighteen and had legal control over his own finances. Only an idiot would turn down an offer like that, and Rantaro was certainly no idiot. He took the offer without hesitation, and threw himself into his work. And it went well.

For a while.

But anything that went well in a world of despair had to eventually come to an end, and Rantaro knew that his work was no exception. His quality never changed, but he found himself losing hope on his own. His days were consisting of inventing from dawn till midnight, except for those times when his father would decide that it was his turn to go through Hell. Invent, Hell, Sleep. Rinse and repeat, in a different order but always the same. He made clear to the Ultimate Initiative that if anything were to happen to him, his sisters would still get money. They agreed, and at least that weight was lifted from his shoulders. So he kept working, and working, and he poured work worth far more than the time it would take for him to turn eighteen into his endeavors as the Ultimate Inventor, and he deserved as much as a guarantee that his sisters would be okay if he died.

When he died.

When, it wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when. He was running himself ragged, working himself down to the bone. And then it happened, the day that he was sure that he would simply die of exhaustion, left on the floor of that basement with the machinery beading sweat on his head and new bruises blooming all over his body with the latest travesty on his father's part. He didn't die at all. He felt a cold cloth pressed against his forehead, and a girl his age spoke, her voice sounding to him like the sweetest song ever written.

"Don't worry, Amami. You'll never have to do anything like that again. We promise."

Then he woke up in a hotel room.

As soon as he woke, he sat up and looked around. There was one girl his age, and another who was much older. He assumed the first was the one who spoke to him in the basement, "Who are you?"

"Me?" The girl asked, then gave her answer, "I'm Angie Yonaga, and I'm the Ultimate Pianist. Well... Actually, I'm the Failed Ultimate Pianist. This year's very first Failed Ultimate."

"Failed Ultimate...?" Rantaro asked.

"It means that you suck, basically," The grown woman said in a lilting, cheery voice, but despite the disrespect her voice was almost calming, compassionate, "You were assigned a task, and you couldn't do it anymore. You almost died, but you get one more chance for your death to mean something, instead of just joining the pointless stream of lives lost to the trappings of a cruel world."

"So..." Rantaro trailed off, "You saved my life, just so I can die a different way? Let me guess. This is how you get Ultimates for the Annual Killing Game?"

"It has to be us," Angie said, forlorn, "Because we're useless now. This is all we can be good for. We've proven we'd rather die than be Ultimate Despairs ourselves, but we can't carry enough hope to keep doing our jobs as Ultimates. We're really worthless. I guess now that I know it's people like me who get used in a Killing Game, they don't seem like as big a deal. We were gonna die anyway. What's it matter if we kill each other instead of ourselves...?"

"...I guess you're right," Rantaro admitted, "So the Killing Games are a sham?"

"I mean," Angie said, "Nobody ever said that the Ultimates in the Killing Games were top-notch Ultimates who somehow got captured. Makes sense it'd be us, the terrible useless ones, right? But it's okay. After all, if you die in a Killing Game, then it means something to somebody."

"Killing Games exist to create despair, right...?" Rantaro asked.

"I dunno," Angie shrugged, "Yes, technically, I guess. But it's also an injustice, isn't it? Maybe someone else will become an Ultimate because they see you die and think, we shouldn't live in a world where that can happen."

"...Whatever you wanna believe, that's fine with me," The woman said.

"We're both pitiful, but..." Angie said, "There's still a little more than half a year before the Annual Killing Game," She held her hand out, "Let's make that time worth living, right, Amami?"

"Right," Rantaro said, and took her hand.

\--  
Rantaro already remembered meeting Angie before, having used the Flashback Light from the roof; But it took Miu's light to make him remember _how_ they'd met, and the others to give his situation context. He'd already found himself falling into caring too much after remembering that he and Angie had met before the Killing Game, but now that he knew how they met...

He realized that there was no way he ever could have kept his emotional distance.

Even as they were both receiving death sentences, she saved him.

 


	169. Fourth Trial (Kaede's Memory Part 1)

Before the Killing Game, Kaede Akamatsu was left completely alone. She'd been given the title of Ultimate Detective, and given a laptop. It was an archaic sort of thing that didn't even tell the time, it had one purpose only. To make use of her investigative skills, the Ultimate Initiative would send case information to her, and she could send in her input. In between cases, it would provide her with puzzles, deciphering codes and the like, to keep her brain sharp. She hid the laptop from her parents, and especially from her twin sister. Her father might understand, as a politician who'd managed to break through and get enough votes to hold a position on the Diet in spite of his non-despairing ways; But her mother had already lost hope, locking herself in her room most days to stare at the wall and wish for a better future for her children, and Keiko was well on the path to becoming an agent of Despair herself.

Kaede was different, though. She had the power to spread hope. She was never told by the Ultimate Initiative if her input actually helped to solve a case, but she liked to think that she was making a difference. That she was helping people. Even as she used this tool, however, the world continued to crumble around her. Keiko ran away from home not long after, but she sent letters, paper letters, knowing that the Akamatsus lacked phones or computers which could contact the outside world, out of paranoia on their mother's part and complacence on their father's. Kaede wrote back to her too, despite a growing resentment as Keiko's situation changed more and more. At first, she'd run and found a place to sustain herself.

Then, she got an older boyfriend who was willing to provide for her.

Then, that boyfriend broke up with her, and Keiko ran again, only to find an assortment of Despairs in a group home, who she was more than willing to join with. Kaede had to watch her twin sister turn her back on everything her father stood for, to stand with the very people who had made their mother into the empty shell of her past self. She hated her. She hated Keiko. She seemed so happy, working to cause despair, and Kaede couldn't ever imagine being truly happy, but she knew that she wouldn't find happiness in the act of hurting others. Kaede hated Keiko more than anyone else, because Keiko gave a face to the concept of Despair.

Then came the day when Kaede's parents were killed. Brutally murdered right in front of her very eyes. Stabbed to death by a man with so much malice in his eyes, but somehow, Keiko was still worse than him to Kaede. Keiko could stand her ground, and this man looked right at Kaede and decided not to kill her, so it seemed he wouldn't hurt kids. Keiko would have been brave enough to stop him if she'd stayed, right? Or maybe she would have told him she would join him, but that was still something, that still could have saved their parents. And if nothing else, if Keiko hadn't run away, Kaede would have at least had her. Maybe they didn't get along, but Kaede wouldn't have had to take her parents' bodies out of the living room on her own, and she wouldn't have been alone when she faced the awful realization that she could never get the bloodstains out of the carpet, and Keiko could have at least rubbed her shoulder in awkward consolation every time she saw the stains and broke down sobbing.

And most of all, Keiko could have kept her grounded in time. Reminded her to go outside, but there was plenty of food in the house, more than enough to last her. She thought she'd go shopping whenever it ran out. And she didn't go outside. She had new assignments on the artifact of a laptop, after all. She did those. She ate when she was hungry, showered when she was dirty, slept when she was tired, that was it. The watch she wore was very broken. She washed dishes when they piled up, did her laundry too. The laundry was the only time she had any concept of what was passing. She kept the blinds drawn. Somehow, she was afraid to look outside. Like if she did, she'd see the vulture-cleaned bones of her parents. Like if she didn't, the despairing world was only a nightmare, and she could act like it didn't truly exist.

 

One day, Kaede received a string of puzzles more complicated than any she'd seen before, but she worked her way through them. She was sure it took her a long time; she had to take breaks to sleep a total of five times, but that was just when she got incredibly exhausted. It didn't feel like a long time to her, though. It felt like no time at all. And finally, she cracked the final cipher.

"Thank you!" Words popped up on her screen, "To the Ultimate Detective; This is the Ultimate Despairing Hacker. I've taken control of your device, and sent you, disguised as puzzles, the ciphers that needed to be cracked so that I could hack into the political system of Japan. Despair will be able to take complete control of the government thanks to your assistance. I guess that leaves you with two choices! (-u-)~ Become the Ultimate Despairing Detective, or I'll blow this thing up and kill you! Type your answer below, please."

Kaede stared at the laptop for a while, and Keiko came to mind. And that was all she needed to make her choice. She typed in response, "I'll never become Despair. I would truly rather die. So go ahead, kill me."

"Okay," Words flashed up on the screen, and everything happened at once. Kaede felt arms wrap around her waist, pulling her backwards as the laptop burst into flames before her eyes, singing her legs even as she was dragged out of range of the comparatively weak explosive. She couldn't have moved far enough on her own to avoid it, but with the help of a mystery person, she escaped the brunt of the explosion.

"Hello, Kaede Akamatsu," Her rescuer spoke, and though his voice sent chills down her spine, she wasn't actually afraid, "I'm here to offer you one last chance at survival."


	170. Fourth Trial (Kaede's Memory Part 2)

"Who... Are you?" Kaede asked, turning to look at her mysterious rescuer. Any other day, she'd be surprised to see the long-haired, lanky man wearing a mask and dressed all in concealing black, but in this moment, nothing could truly shock her.

"Korekiyo Shinguji," The young man answered, "And I'm the Failed Ultimate Assassin."

"Huh," Kaede noted, "What makes you Failed?"

"My employer learned that I was taking assignments from the Ultimate Initiative, and tried to have me killed," Korekiyo said, releasing her waist, "I was saved at the last moment, just as I saved you moments ago."

"If you _were_ the Ultimate Assassin..." Kaede trailed, moving away to turn and face him thoroughly, "Then why were you here? Does that mean..."

"I was sent to do one of two things depending on what I observed in you," Korekiyo said, "If you were to become Ultimate Despair, I was to put you down on the spot rather than allow that. However, thanks to your refusal... Well, it's evident that Ultimate Despair knows who you are, and wants you dead, so I'll be bringing you to a safe house. Miss... Failed Ultimate Detective."

"Failed?" Kaede asked.

"Of course," Korekiyo said, "Of course you are. Did you really think that you could continue operating as the Ultimate Detective now that you've, however unwittingly, helped the enemy as much as you did?"

"Oh," Kaede said, "So what will happen to me?"

"The same thing that happens to any Failed Ultimate," Korekiyo said, "You'll live in a safe house until the next Annual Killing Game, and then you'll participate in it. It's not that strange or unusual, you know. I really don't think that you should be surprised that this had happened, Akamatsu."

"Okay," Kaede said, "I understand. I failed, so now I'll pay a price for it. That price is to either be killed by Despair, or to participate in a Killing Game, right?"

"Tch," Korekiyo chuckled a bit, "You understood that much sooner than I did, Akamatsu. I acted as if there was no way I could be involved in such a thing. A Killing Game is a very dangerous place for an Ultimate Assassin, correct?"

"I guess you're right," Kaede said, "But it's possible to survive something like that, even if you've killed before. It's not like past misdeeds are taken into account during the game. As far as I know, anyway... I don't watch those things, but my twin sister used to, so I was bound to overhear a little."

"Ah, yes," Korekiyo said, "Keiko Akamatsu... I regret to be the one to inform you, but she's no longer with the living. She was one of the final marks the Ultimate Initiative assigned to me before my near-death experience."

"Oh..." Kaede trailed off, "Since when?"

"One month ago," Korekiyo said.

"And when was the execution of the man who killed my parents, again?" Kaede asked.

"That would be about... A year and a half ago," Korekiyo answered.

"I see," Kaede said, "Is it bad, that I don't feel all that upset to hear that she's dead? I mean... Well, if it was a month ago, that means that she _decided_ to stop sending me letters as soon as our parents died. I kind of resent her for that."

"I won't begrudge you that," Korekiyo said, shaking his head, "Were my sister still alive... All of my love for her would die a painful death at my own hands if she became Despair. It's unfortunate, but once somebody has fallen into Despair, or become a cause of it, they aren't your family anymore. Aren't your friends anymore. They become nothing."

"My mother wasn't nothing," Kaede said, "She fell into despair, but she didn't cause it, she suffered from it. She was still my mother, somewhere underneath it all."

"Mm..." Korekiyo trailed off, glancing away, "I suppose I was assuming that, had my sister survived, she would have been the Ultimate and not me. Ultimates cannot fall into despair the same way normal people do. We die, or we learn to spread despair the same way we once spread hope."

"I see," Kaede said, "It sounds like you really loved your sister."

"It's true," Korekiyo said, "And had you agreed to become the Ultimate Despairing Detective, and had I murdered you for it, then I would have completed my life's goal. To kill one hundred people in her name. But... Instead, I must bring you to the Secret Compound to participate in The Killing Game."

"Well, let's go, then," Kaede said, glancing back at the smoldering chunk that had once been her only connection to the outside world, "Before this whole place burns down."

"Don't you want to collect something before we depart?" Korekiyo asked.

"No," Kaede said, "There's nothing. There isn't anything here that I care about taking with me, not anymore. Not since they died."

"I understand," Korekiyo said, "Then, let Ultimate Despair burn the memory of you, and we'll depart. There are friends waiting for you."

"I don't know if I'll make friends very well," Kaede said, "I've been isolated for a year and a half, apparently."

"Perhaps, or perhaps not," Korekiyo said, "But I must admit, I'm already finding myself considering you a friend. So that's one on the board, now isn't it? Not that I'd consider myself the best person to have as a friend."

"I mean, you did kill my sister," Kaede said, "But... If you want to be my friend, I'll be yours too. I guess people like us kind of need to stick together."

"That's right," Korekiyo said, then grabbed her by the wrist and led her out of her house, into the outside. It was as dreary as ever. Pockets of the world existed untouched by despair, that still held natural beauty, but cities like the one Kaede lived in felt the full force of the despairing world. Even on the rare sunny days, all that did was make it easier to see the destruction all around. Kaede often wished she could go somewhere else. Live somewhere other than this. But with her mother's state, going outside as a group was unsafe.

Not that staying inside had turned out to be safe anyway.

Korekiyo brought her to the Secret Compound though, a building of dorm rooms and common areas, with relatively good food and available recreation. It was a few steps above a prison, basically, but a few steps above was enough for Kaede. She met with Rantaro and Angie who were already there, and everybody else as they arrived, and they became her precious friends.

In the courtroom, Kaede knew what she had to do.


	171. Fourth Trial (Resolution)

Kaede looked around at her peers. They were all reeling from recovered memories but Ryoma and Angie, which made sense. Ryoma had unlocked a majority of his memories through his own willpower and discoveries, while Angie already used enough of those Flashback Lights to only be filling in gaps. The first thing Kaede was curious about was the one which looked like a normal flashlight, and she turned to Angie, "That flashlight..."

"Sorry Akamatsu," Angie said, "I found it in the warehouse, and I couldn't figure out what it did until I let you see it too. It's hard to realize it, but it does two things. It tells you what your role in The Killing Game is meant to be, and it... Brings back emotions, out of context. I'm sorry. It's my fault that you'd have been feeling so bad lately, without a reason why. If it's any consolation, I did the same thing to myself..."

"I understand," Kaede said, smiling at her, "Come on. When did you stop calling me Kaede? We're friends, aren't we?"

Angie gasped, then clasped her hands to her chest and nodded with a smile that she tried to hold back, but which pushed her cheeks up anyway, "You mean, you don't hate me?"

"Of course not," Kaede said, "I can't speak for the others, but I needed to know all of that. I needed to know about the outside world, and how I almost died, and how we all used to be best friends! And I needed to know those things because my role... My role _is_ to discover the truth about this place. As an Ultimate Detective in a Killing Game, even as the Failed Ultimate Detective, my role is to uncover The Mastermind. And there's still missing pieces from those lights! I'm going to find it. I'll find the truth. And thank you, Angie, for picking up the slack when I screwed that up."

"Of course!" Angie said, then looked around to the others, "But I guess the rest of you probably didn't want to get memories like that... And I'm sorry I held onto all of those, but I thought it would be better to use them all at once, and that maybe you'd be more prepared now."

"I needed to know that," Miu said, "I needed to learn about my old friend Wataru... And I needed to know how Tojo and Idabashi saved me. Even if that rescue was to bring me here to participate in this thing, I'll remember them much more fondly now. They were both always trying their best... I can tell that they really cared about us, and they were so sad that the first time we met had to be in that context..."

"We were all such wonderful friends," Tsumugi said, "And with months of history... Even if it was buried, is that really any surprise that we were able to form lasting connections again in such short time?"

"I didn't get any memories of you guys," Ryoma said, "I guess cause they wanted to erase my history with Tsumugi, and reuniting us before The Killing Game began probably would have been a-" He paused, coughing into his hand, then sighed in annoyance at it before continuing, "Well, it would have been counterproductive."

Kaede resisted the urge to ask if he was okay, knowing that with Tsumugi in the room, he would outright deny having coughed in the first place. Instead, she spoke out, "I'm going to fill in those remaining gaps. I'm certain that we knew who was responsible for The Killing Game. If not all of us, then at least those who helped retrieve others. Like Shinguji. With the memories I got... He was actually kind of a decent guy."

"It's hard not to hate what he did," Kokichi said, "But you're right. Shuichi did tell me that he was actually an okay guy, one time. They did have one conversation before Shinguji died, if you'll remember! I know Shuichi always had a habit of seeing the best in people, but I think that it was probably kind of rude to him to always be slandering a friend of his, just because he killed one person and tried to kill another. After all, he took the care to do it in a way that wouldn't actually start The Killing Game."

"Yeah," Kaede said, "And... Well, if his memories weren't scrambled, he never would have tried to kill Yumeno or Tojo. He said that he was killing people to send as friends to his dead sister, but in my memories, he was killing Despairs in her name because an Ultimate Despair was responsible for her death."

"Come on guys..." Tenko hissed from her podium, gripping the sides and giving the floor a death glare, "Are you kidding me? You got those memories back, and still... Nobody agrees with me? Why would you want to survive, to go back to a world like that? A world that can barely accept Hope, a world made of Despair, where you have to watch everybody you love slipping away into a horrific, despairing fugue state..."

"Well," Kokichi answered, "Maybe it's because we don't have anyone we love left anymore to watch fall into Despair like that. Or maybe it's because we're still Ultimates. Just because we failed once and became pitiful worthless fucks whose only purpose is to appear on television in a twisted death game, doesn't mean we can't redeem ourselves!"

"Ouma's right!" Miu exclaimed, "We can still spread Hope! We may have ruined our chances once, but that doesn' mean we've lost the power to do it."

"No..." Tenko muttered, choked up, then sobbed out at top volume, "No! No, no, no, no, no! You can't have me executed! Don't you dare do that, you can't! I made a promise to myself when I loved you the first time around, and this is no different! I lost my first friends to despair! I could never do it... I could never let you see the despairing world again! No matter what I have to do, even if it's killing every last one of you, I can't let you feel despair! I care too much about you! Gonta understood that! And I would have gotten away with it, I would have achieved my goal and protected all of you, it was the perfect crime! How the Hell could Yonaga know it was me, nobody saw us! She couldn't have, if her alibi's to be believed!"


	172. Fourth Trial (Burning Bridge)

"It doesn't matter how I thought it was you!" Angie shouted back, though she kept her voice level as she did, "Because I was right! I was lying. It was a lie, to sniff you out, and it worked even better than I expected."

"Are you sure?" Tenko questioned, leaning far forward over her podium, "Or is there some other way that you could have known it was me, and you're just pretending it was a lie!?"

"...What, really?" Kokichi asked, his voice blank as he stared at her, "Are we really going to do this, Chabashira? You've been caught out. You and Yumeno both confessed. Are you trying to drag Angie in as some sort of accomplice now, like that would change anything? Like anything you could say would convince us to vote for her instead of you, because you somehow came to the conclusion that Idabashi had the right idea?"

"You can't," Tenko cried out, "You can't vote to have me executed!"

"We can and will," Kokichi said, sighing as he pressed his good hand to his cheek, "It really is a shame, because I hate to see you go, especially on such terms as our friendshio going rotten like this, but... We can't give up on what we're trying to build here. The Killing Game is a second chance, isn't it? I can't imagine a more despairing end, than for us to vote for the wrong person and all be executed... Then for the one who got away with it to commit suicide too. It's funny, Chabashira, if you were more composed... Then of course the Ultimate Anthropologist could have manipulated us into doing exactly what you want. We got incredibly _lucky_."

"What's with the emphasis on luck there?" Tsumugi asked, holding a finger to her chin, "Though, it does seem like that word is somehow significant."

"Just another thing that the Flashback Lights failed to explain," Kaede said, "Even with all of those memories we got... You can't remember anything specific about any of the past Killing Games, right? And I know that I didn't watch them, but my twin sister, Keiko, did... I know I would have at least seen some parts of them in passing, but I feel like all I know about Killing Games is what the Flashback Lights told us. I need to get more information. I'm certain there's a way to."

"Hey..." Miu muttered under her breath, "Chabashira..."

"Yeah, Iruma?" Tenko asked, her hostility dampened a bit with her surprise at being addressed out of the blue like that.

"You..." Miu started at a low volume, then took a deep breath and called out with much more intensity, "You seriously still think that you're doing the right thing, knowing what happens to us after we've been killed!?"

"It's not like that matters!" Tenko shot back, "You'd be dead anyway, you wouldn't know what's happening to your body. Besides, a world that would do that sort of thing? Why would you ever think you'd be better off continuing to live in the type of world where people would pay... Where they'd pit their money against _each other_ to get ahold of your corpse!?"

"That's exactly why I don't want to die anymore," Kokichi said, "I don't want to let anybody buy my body... I don't want to face the reality that more people would want to take me in, in death, than they did when I was alive. And I want to stick it to the type of people who'd want a corpse, for that matter. I guess there's nothing we can do about whoever wants to buy you, Chabashira, but we can disappoint everybody who's left by surviving, can't we? Besides. I'm sure that all of us have people that we're worried about... It's the principle of the thing, you know. The person who hurt me the most, wanting my dead body to keep forever? Hah, the very thought of it makes me want to vomit! So you know, I can't lie down and die if I let the thought cross my mind for even a second."

"Ouma's right," Kaede said, "I'm sure that the Ultimate Despairing Hacker, who tried to kill me before I went to the Secret Compound... Would just love to do all sorts of things to any version of me!"

"Uhm," Tsumugi spoke up to agree, "Truth be told, I'm not that worried about myself, I always kinda expected that my girl-next-door appearance would attract necrophiles to whatever morgue I ended up in, so I already came to terms with that sort of thing..." She trailed off, then spoke with gusto, "But I seethe with jealousy at the thought of somebody doing something like that to Kaede! She's mine, even if she dies!"

"You're so sweet," Kaede chuckled, ignoring the weirder parts of that statement.

"My last master, that terrible young man who hoped to turn me into the Ultimate Despairing Maid, definitely has enough money to win an auction for me..." Miu said, "And as much as it goes against the spirit of being the Ultimate Maid, I never want to serve _him_ in any manner, ever again, even in death! All of you... You are my friends and masters now."

"I dunno if anyone would want a body like mine," Ryoma said, "But the idea of it's pretty damn disgusting."

"There are such terrible people," Angie said, "Who could get ahold of our bodies if we all died. And I'm sure so many of those terrible people are already satisfied with the corpses of our dead friends! And if you had just never killed Gokuhara, then it could be over! The Killing Game could have ended without any more of that, don't you see!? Only the Mastermind needed to die and that would be it! We still want to live! Maybe we wanted to die before, but that's over!"

"Bullshit..." Tenko hissed, her volume rising, "Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!! It's all bullshit!! Why can't you see!? Why can't you see how much I love you!? Why can't you see that I know what's best for you!? We can't handle the outside world! That's who we are, as Failed Ultimates! You'll go out there and you'll suffer even more and then you'll die anyway! Whatever those people want to do with your corpses, they'll do to you while you're alive!! As your friend," She was shrieking now, pounding her fists against the podium, "I can't allow that! I can't, I can't I can't I can't!"

"Chabashira," Kokichi said, staring at her with death in his one visible eye as his head tilted a bit to the side, "If you can't respect our desires... Then really, you know, you're not even any better than the people who hurt us in the first place."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kirumi-focused Lost Chapter now available


	173. Fourth Trial (Disarmed)

"Wh... What?" Tenko's intensity immediately diminished as her voice turned weak, taking a step back from her podium and staring at Kokichi in fear, "No, it's not... I'm not like that at all... I'm not, I swear I'm not, it's just that I love you all so much, I can't stand to let you suffer the Despairing World, there's no way... You all made me happy again, when I thought that everything was lost, and I swore that I would never ever let you suffer again..."

"You didn't even think of what we wanted," Kokichi prodded, his voice echoing in the otherwise silent, much too empty courtroom, "You just decided to impose your own will on us. They said they loved us too. Or at least that they loved something about us. You never thought to wonder first, if all of us truly would want to die, even if we saw that same Flashback Light? You're just like them."

"I'm nothing like them!" Tenko shouted, her voice cracking, then brought her hands up to cover her face, "There's no way. No, no, I'm not... I can't... Did I..." She dropped her hands to reveal a devastated appearance, "I inflicted Despair."

"You did," Angie said, "And any Ultimate who starts to cause Despair..."

"Has to be executed," Tenko finished it for her, "I know. I got the same sort of memories as everyone else, just now. I need to die. Before I become the Ultimate Despairing Anthropologist, huh? I really am an idiot."

"Not an idiot," Angie said, shaking her head, "You only became as pitiful as you were before your memories were erased. Like we all were. Pitiful. It's nobody's fault. Sometimes people just become that way."

"...Jeeze, that just makes me feel worse," Tenko said.

"Oh! Sorry," Angie said, covering her mouth with one hand, "I kind of wanted to be reassuring there, but Atua says you deserve to die, so I guess I couldn't help but be a little mean."

"Yeah, that was pretty mean," Tenko said, crossing her arms, "But you're right, I guess. If I am becoming Ultimate Despair... I'd rather die than do that. Even if I can't take all of you down with me. I guess that I let the love I felt, warp my perspective. Even now, I wish I could have succeeded, you know."

"It's understandable," Kaede said, "I think that... I could have become Ultimate Despair too, you know. And my memory proved it. I would really rather die than let that happen, and even still, it could have happened to me. A Killing Game really does bring out the worst in people. But... I just wish that it didn't have to carry a death sentence, you know."

"It's fine," Tenko said, brushing her fingers over the podium as she stepped away from it, "You know, I can still feel one thing normally. Not this overpowering love that makes me want to spare you guys, just, gratitude. I'm glad I didn't die out there in the desert, when I first failed to be an Ultimate. I'm grateful that I got the chance to know all of you. I'm grateful that not once, but twice... You showed me enough love that I got back my will to live, even if it was just for a little while."

"Chabashira..." Kaede trailed off, then showed her a smile, "I'm grateful to you, too, you know. You were always kind to me and I was glad to have you as a friend... And as somebody who truly valued Ultimate Talents, it must have been awful to find out that all along, we were the ones who failed... But I'm also glad you didn't get away with it. I don't want you to die, but... I guess that you'd be doing that either way, right?"

"...That's right," Tenko said, "I never intended to go back out into the Despairing World, after I saved you guys from it..."

"The only difference," Kokichi said, "Is that probably would have been more painless than whatever your execution's gonna be, huh?"

"Ugh," Tenko gave a gutteral noise from deep within her throat, bringing her hands up to cover her face again, "I'm pathetic. I really am so pathetic. I didn't even think about what my execution could be like, I was so certain that I committed the perfect crime. After all, the victim wanted me to get away with it too!"

"Well," Kaede said, "You underestimated the investigative abilities of the liars in the room," She nodded toward Angie and Kokichi, "I have to say, you two. I never would have thought that the way to solve this case... and so quickly, too, would be the throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks method!"

"Hey, you know, you had to leave this one to us!" Kokichi said, scratching the back of his neck with an empty, joyless grin, "We would have let you out if we thought that you could help us, but you know, if you were leading this trial then we'd still be going in circles trying to find the tiniest little detail in nonexistent evidence. Me and Angie planned ahead of time, to just keep using bullshit tactics, cause it was our only hope. I'm kinda shocked it worked _so_ well, to tell the truth... But then again, it seems Angie is a worthy equal of mine when it comes to deception!"

"I did my best!" Angie said, "But it really was dumb luck in the end, you know?"

"Dumb luck's a good way to put it," Tenko said, "Good luck for you guys, at least, you think it is. Bad luck for me, and you guys for real, you know. This kind of thing... It really won't end well. The Killing Game."

"We'll see about that, Chabashira," Angie said, and it almost sounded like a challenge, "Maybe it'll end pretty well. Maybe it'll end the best that anyone left alive could have hoped for, and you'll be proved wrong."

"I sincerely doubt that," Tenko said, then stepped into the center of the courtroom and folded her arms over her chest, in the same position Gonta's body had been hidden in, "Well, this is it from me. Good luck. I'm sorry, for whatever you want to hold against me when all is said and done. For failing or for trying. I know when I'm beat. Goodbye."


	174. Fourth Trial (Execution)

[The Execution of Tenko Chabashira: HUMAN TOMB]

Tenko was dropped from the middle of the courtroom into what seemed to be some sort of tomb, or catacombs beneath. She knew that this had been prepared especially for her, given that this was not what had previously been under the Courtroom, but that didn't shake the impulse it gave her to explore. Staying in one place was bound to end badly for her.

She could tell by the footsteps behind her, getting closer. She started to move, away from the footsteps and through the catacombs. She didn't know which way to turn, but she took to the age-old strategy of hugging the right wall. As she traversed the place, she found herself getting more and more on edge. There weren't any signs here of an ancient civilization, not even any variety of traps to fend off invaders from potential treasures. It was entirely unlike all of the ruins that she had previously explored.

In possession of the stamina to do so, Tenko ran, having come to the conclusion that there was nothing along the way to pique her interest in any way. She just ran, and ran, and the footsteps behind her only walked. They multiplied, but only walked, never growing any closer. She kept running. Beneath her feet, the feeling changed from the tamped-down dirt of her usual ventures, and instead to metal, resonating out with every step she took on it, a metallic and grating sound. She kept going, and the place was growing lighter.

The revealed walls weren't stone, but metal that seemed as if it had been eaten away by rust, just like the floors. The lighting was fluorescent, flickering in and out with that quiet buzz that was responsible for so many headaches. She was starting to get tired, but she ran. She ran, and ran, but then she found her first true dead end. At the end of a long, long corridor, nothing but a mirror. She saw herself in it, ragged, out of breath, and dropped to her knees, staring.

It was an execution. Who was she to think she could escape? This was an execution, after all. Penance for her crimes.

Behind her in the mirror, faceless humans approached, their footsteps thunderous against the metal flooring. She squeezed her eyes shut. Between the fluorescent lights and the metal noises, her head hurt so much. She had such an awful headache. Such a terrible headache...

She opened her eyes again, just in time to see the faceless masses right behind her. She leaned forward, pressing her head against the mirror. The cold felt so nice on her headache, it was lovely. This execution was a mockup of the ruins of society.

Someday, this Despairing World would just be another ancient society to somebody just like her. And maybe they'd find her bones, and they would never know what type of person she really was. What she did, what she tried to do, how much she cared about her friends. Her misguided, so misguided, love for her friends, which couldn't be contained to her heart.

She was crying, and her tears slid down the mirror.

Then, she was surrounded. The faceless people pulled her from the mirror, into their mass, blocking her in on every side, trapping her, cutting off her oxygen. She tried to breathe, and couldn't, suffocating in a cage of false humans. They kept her there for a long time. Too long. Longer than anybody could have ever held their breath.

And then they left her, eyes wide open and face blue, reflected in the mirror.

\----

As soon as the execution was finished, Kokichi already turned away from his podium and walked over to the elevator. Angie noticed, and jumped away from her own podium, running towards it. She just managed to dive in as the doors were closing, leaving the rest of the courtroom immediately behind.

"Hello, Angie," Kokichi said, looking down at where she'd fallen into the elevator, "You did a good job with that lie, you know. Congratulations."

"Thanks," She said, standing up and brushing herself off, "So what's your plan now?"

"I dunno," Kokichi said, "Akamatsu's got her groove back, you know. So it isn't like there's much left for me to really do, yeah? It's kinda up to her, and The Mastermind, now."

"If I have my concert tomorrow, does that mean you'll be forced to tell me tomorrow, who The Mastermind is?" Angie asked.

"I know that you know," Kokichi said, "Me telling you still doesn't have a point."

"Pft," Angie giggled, "You know, you're ridiculous."

"I kind of am," Kokichi said, "Hey, Angie?"

"Yeah?" She said, leaning against the wall of the elevator.

"Why don't you go ahead and kill me?" He asked.

"Why would I do that?" Angie asked.

"Because," He said, "We're at such a point that if you killed me, no matter what, no matter who The Mastermind is or anything, The Killing Game will end. If we both died, then there would be five people left, right? Don't you want to let everyone else live?"

"Kokichi," Angie said, "There's a big problem with that plan."

"What's that?" He asked.

"You deserve to live," Angie said, "You deserve to survive. Maybe I don't, but you do. The point of finishing off a Killing Game would be to let the people I care about survive. Let someone kill me. I'll die for that. But I won't end The Killing Game if it means ending you or Rantaro's lives. You deserve to live."

"Okay," Kokichi said, "So I'll spread the word, then? That you're okay with being killed now?"

"Yeah," Angie said, "It's fine now."

"That's dumb," Kokichi said.

"Your idea was dumb too."

"That's fair."

"The Killing Game will end soon," Angie noted as the doors opened and she stepped out, "We don't have to do anything, it'll happen. Don't do anything brash, okay? I want you to live. You really deserve it. Don't ever pretend like you don't, ever again."

And Angie was gone into the night, leaving Kokichi standing in the courtyard. He left, too, before the others could come upstairs. He would rather be alone right now. He could think harder about it later. If Angie wouldn't help him end The Killing Game, somebody else would.


	175. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Aftermath Resolution)

Kaede watched as the elevator left, holding only Angie and Kokichi, thanks to Angie's quick thinking to catch up before he left them all behind, then turned back to the others and leaned against the podium with a heavy sigh, "Well... That was another trial. Sure was a lot."

"I agree," Ryoma said, "I regained quite a few memories myself, and those were still nothing compared to what you had forgotten... And I'm still reeling, now that we're not in a moment which we need to keep our composure."

"It's really shocking..." Rantaro said, "What I remembered. I can only assume that it was the same for all of you, right? Not to mention, Chabashira... I never would have thought that she'd do something like that."

"Yeah," Kaede said, her voice quiet and breaking, "Of all the information I ended up with...The Flashback Lights I used before now didn't prepare me for what I saw at all. I can't believe that I could have lost those things from my memory... I didn't even realize the pieces that were missing, but now that I know them, it's hard to think back to when I didn't."

"That's because memories are important," Tsumugi said, "It's terrifying to think they could be gone in the first place... And even when they're bad ones, they're a part of who we are. If I'd had those memories... I can't say I never would have done something as horrible as I did, but maybe not. Maybe I would have put more faith in Kaede and known she wouldn't have done it if she'd promised me she wouldn't... And that Saihara wouldn't have wanted to be avenged that way."

"We can't go back in time," Kaede ran a hand back through her hair and took a deep, shaking breath, "We can't undo the things we've done, can't bring back Tojo, and even if we knew this and tried to talk to Chabashira before, I don't know if she ever could have thought any differently than this. And it cost her life... And Gokuhara's... And we can hardly even process it

"That's right," Rantaro said, "And the thing is... For every bad memory that those lights gave us, we got good ones too. The good memories hurt, sure, but we got them."

"That's a good point, Amami," Miu said, "Good memories are going to make us grieve harder than we have been, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's better to remember the dead for who they were at their best, not who they were at their worst, and now we have more memories of who they were... At their better, anyway. None of us met each other at our best, obviously. Seeing as we are _Failed_ Ultimates by nature."

"We can't let that define us," Kaede said, "We were marked as Failed for one thing going wrong! Maybe we got trapped in an inescapable situation by somehow who was in Despair, or maybe we decided to die instead of continue our duties... But that's one mistake. And we may be Failed Ultimates, but that still means we're Ultimates! We still have our abilities and we still have the power to give hope to others, right?"

"That's right," Tsumugi said, "And I'm making progress on my research, even from in here, too. I can still succeed, I think..."

"That's really great," Miu said, "I know that we can all do it. I have complete faith in all of you. We've lost too much to keep losing more."

"That's kind of you to say," Ryoma said, "But I wouldn't be so quick to assume. There's still seven of us alive... We either have to go three years peacefully in this place, or two more of us still need to die, you know?"

"Hm..." Kaede mumbled to herself, then spoke up, "That's another thing I should be trying to figure out, isn't it? Why we were given that three year timespan at all, if we were just going to get pushed into committing murder."

"If they always collect Failed Ultimates," Miu said, "I know this sounds really horrible, but maybe it's to show that because we failed once, there's no way for us to prevent a Killing Game from happening among us?"

"That is awful," Kaede said, "But, you know, sufficiently awful. It's awful in a way that I'd expect from whoever organized this thing. Maybe if we were all Ultimates, and not failed ones, then none of this could have happened. Instead, Monokuma said we set a record for quickest death in a Killing Game."

"That sure did happen," Rantaro said, "But that's a record for quickest death, not quickest start to the Killing Game. With the time it took for Maki's programming to catch up to us, that might actually be getting up there for the longest time it took for The Killing Game to start? I don't know."

"If the measure is by the first person who willingly participated in the Killing Game, it took even longer," Miu spoke up, "After all, it wasn't Maki's fault that her programming did that to her! That's unfair, really... No matter what, that would have happened, right?"

"Not necessarily," Tsumugi said, looking up at the ceiling, "After all, someone had to flip her switch. If that hadn't happened, then maybe you're right. We could have gotten out of here with only Yumeno and Shinguji dead. And maybe if he had his memories, Shinguji wouldn't have even done that much. Even so, Monokuma's forbidden whoever flipped the switch to admit it, right? So that's a what-if that's useless to think about."

"That's right," Kaede said, "I think it wants us to have as many reasons as possible to suspect each other. After all, if what it said is to believed, then we have to suspect somebody of being The Mastermind, and somebody else of being the person who flipped Maki's switch and doomed her to becoming a murderer. But we haven't even really thought about that... And I don't want to start now."

"Oh, right, Akamatsu!" Miu exclaimed, "You weren't there... But Ouma said something at breakfast this morning. He told us that he figured out who The Mastermind is, but he won't tell us who, and he can't bring himself to kill this person. Does that help at all?"

Kaede heard the telltale noise of the elevator arriving back in the courtroom, and started toward it as she answered the question, "It does help, actually. Thanks for telling me, Iruma. That means that Ouma was able to get enough information somehow to deduce the identity of The Mastermind, so I should be capable of the same thing. That proves it's possible... If he's correct."

"I believe him," Rantaro chimed in, "I think that he wouldn't say he knew, if he didn't have a pretty solid idea of who it is. And I don't think that he'd be wrong. Angie trusts his judgment, so I will too."

"Well, I'm not so keen on Angie's judgment right now, but she did just save us all in the trial, so I'll give her that much," Kaede said, "Sounds like I need to have a talk with Ouma."


	176. Daily Life: Day Eleven (A Bad Idea)

When the elevator arrived upstairs, everyone piled out, then Kaede turned to the rest of them, "Hey... Can we take a vote?"

"Depends what we're voting on," Ryoma said.

"I'd like to vote for Monokuma to leave Tsumugi's lab unlocked from now on," Kaede said, "I know that I'm asking a lot, given what she did, but in light of the new memories we've received, her regret, and the fact that I also got trapped inside of it..."

"That's fair," Miu said, and lifted her hand, "This doesn't mean you're off the hook, Shirogane, but Akamatsu does make a good point. We've all done things that we regret, both inside and outside of The Killing Game. When I was in service of Despairs, I did so many things that I'm not proud of... Now that I'm aware of the full scope of those things, I would be a hypocrite to say that you need to stay locked up for one bad decision."

"You should know that I'd vote to let my own sister stay free," Ryoma raised his hand as well, "You better come visit me, Tsumugi."

"I hate to go against what Angie thought was best," Rantaro said, looking away, "So how's this? Probation. Akamatsu, you're going to be investigating most of the time, right? So Shirogane can be doing one of two things. In her lab, working, or helping you investigate the Ultimate Academy. Or you know, eating with all of us. If any of us see her walking around alone, and she's not going to find you or going to her lab, we have discretion to revoke this vote."

"That seems fair to me," Tsumugi said, holding her hands to her chest, "I wouldn't intend on doing much else besides those things anyway. I'll do everything I can... To earn back your trust."

"We can't ever trust you," Miu said, "At least, I can't, I'm sorry. But even though you can't earn my trust, if you try hard enough, you can probably earn my forgiveness. I'm sorry to be so selfish, but that's the best I can give you."

"You ought to be selfish from time to time," Ryoma said, then turned to look at Tsumugi, "You know, sis. You still got a ways to go. But do your best, okay? And I know that you really can become a good person."

"I'll do my _very_ best," Tsumugi assured them, then stepped up to Kaede and took her hand, "Let's start investigating, then...?"

"You read my mind," Kaede said, "I want to get started now, even though it's already evening. The sooner we can figure this whole thing out, the better. I want to fill in the gaps left in my memory. I want to know who's responsible for this Killing Game."

"That's the spirit!" Miu said, "The Dining Hall closes pretty soon... So I'll prepare a picnic out in the courtyard. You can come and eat whenever you're ready, that way."

"I'll help you with that," Rantaro said, stepping to Miu's side, "That way it'll be easier. I've cooked before... And I get the feeling that Angie and Ouma would have ended up in weird places, with that ten minute headstart. That's just how they both are, you know? I'd rather help than try to track Angie down at a time like this."

"Oh, thank you Amami," Miu said, then grabbed his wrist in two hands, "Heh, so I'm stealing you from your girlfriend for one night?" She joked.

"Looks like it," He joked right back, letting himself be dragged to the Dining Hall. That left Kaede and Tsumugi alone with Ryoma.

"I've got to get back to my lab..." Ryoma noted, then turned to Tsumugi again, "But first... Tsumugi," He pulled his beanie from his head and handed it to her, "The game's almost over, you know. So I have no idea if when it's done, we'll see each other again. I'm glad I got to see you again. You might never get to bring me to space, but... You can at least bring my hat, right? Go on and have the adventures I never could."

Tsumugi took the beanie, then crouched down to be at eye level with her stepbrother, "Of course, Ryoma. Even if I never get to show you Jupiter, or Mars... I won't ever give up."

"Good on you," Ryoma said, smirking as he turned and started to walk away, back to his lab to guard it again.

Kaede turned to Tsumugi, who held the beanie for a few moments more before she looked to Kaede. She lifted one hand and pulled off the magnifying glass hairclip, affixed it to the cream-colored hat, then put it onto Kaede's head. Before Kaede could ask why, she gave a bright, wide smile that almost hid the tears in her eyes and explained, "I will bring the hat to space. But you have to wear it, because I'll bring you, Kaede. Trust me, I will. I'll take you with me, and we'll have a wonderful time... Okay?"

"Okay," Kaede said, bringing her hands up to cup Tsumugi's cheeks, "You knew, didn't you?"

"Even if he doesn't end up dead in this game..." Tsumugi muttered, looking down, "He'll die. Probably before next year's game. I realized it a while back, when I saw him coughing. That shouldn't mean anything. That shouldn't be a big deal. But it... It is, you know? When he's got a weak immune system, of course it is. I don't know how I ever thought he'd even live long enough, for me to figure out space travel before this caught up with him."

"Optimism's not a bad trait to have," Kaede said, "Especially in that outside world that we witnessed, you know? I think it's great, that you thought you could do it. Maybe it'll take a little longer than you thought, but I'll believe in you. I know we'll go to space together."

"Never thought that would be something you'd aspire to do, huh, Kaede?" Tsumugi asked with a soft giggle.

"Can't say that I did," Kaede said, "I also can't say that I'd have it any other way, though. All I ever wanted... Was to go somewhere else where my family could be happy, and where I could read books, and watch television again, and make friends. And now my family's dead, but... I guess I have a new one. My friends are my family. And someday you'll make us a space station, and we can read books, and watch television. And we'll be happy there."

"That's right," Tsumugi said, "We just have to survive this game first. So let's see what we can find."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey not gonna lie writing this chapter made me cry a little


	177. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Mysterious Key)

Kaede and Tsumugi immediately got to work on investigating, starting with the fifth floor. Neither of them had actually looked around that area very much before. Well, Tsumugi actually hadn't at all, given that she'd been locked in her lab the moment the fifth floor became available to everybody else. She was shocked to see how sprawling the place was, with everything on that floor seeming to be twice the size of the ones below it. She looked around, wide-eyed, "So this is the fifth floor..."

"Yeah," Kaede said, "Gokuhara's body was hidden under the floorboards. And if you'll note how tall the ceiling is... Angie used that window," She pointed at the open, broken window, "To get onto the roof and retrieve one of the Flashback Lights."

"That's impressive," Tsumugi said, "I mean, especially since she didn't have an athletic talent or anything."

"Yeah, it is," Kaede said, "I'm sure we can figure out an easier way to get up on the roof if we need to, since we don't have to be secretive about it or anything like she did..."

"Well, she didn't have to be secretive," Tsumugi said, "She just chose to."

"She had to," Kaede said, "Trying to be open with us about the fact that she was collecting Flashback Lights... Especially knowing how Chabashira felt these last few days... It wouldn't have worked out very well, and Angie realized that fact."

"I guess you're right..." Tsumugi trailed off, "Do you think that Yonaga will be mad when she hears that I've been let out of my lab?"

"I don't care if she is, in fact," Kaede said, "I kinda hope that it pisses her off, cause I was pretty annoyed when she trapped me inside. And didn't let me out to investigate. I mean, it worked out in the end, but that doesn't mean I'm completely over it, you know?"

"Mm, I get it," Tsumugi said, pushing her glasses up her nose, "Hey, Kaede? Has this thing always been here?"

"What thing?" Kaede asked, approaching where Tsumugi was standing in the corner, poking at something with her foot. It looked like some sort of key, a really old and heavy one, coated in rust. Such that it probably wouldn't even work anymore, but Kaede thought... Surely, if it had been there before, someone would have noticed, "Huh, that's pretty strange..."

"It's like it's glued to the floorboard," Tsumugi said, "I can't budge it."

"Maybe it was there, and we all just brushed it off because it couldn't be moved?" Kaede offered.

"Yeah, uh... Do you really think you would have missed this?" Tsumugi asked.

"Recently? I totally would. I've been off my game. I would have been even more off my game, if Chabashira had died but we didn't get those memories, you know," Kaede explained, "I would have missed this thing. Even if there was evidence about Gokuhara's murder, you know, I wouldn't have found it. That wouldn't have happened, I can see it now. I was so torn up about all the bad things happening around me, but now that I know what we were really supposed to do, as Ultimates..."

"Right!" Tsumugi agreed, "It's so easy to get disheartened, but knowing that no matter what, we learned our skills in a world even more full of despair than the one around us now, makes everything seem more... Possible."

"It does," Kaede said, "We need to find the truth for our friends. For our friends who died. I had a memory, you know, of learning that Keiko died. My twin sister. And I didn't even care. I couldn't care. I was so desensitized out there... But now I do care. I care so much about all of our friends who died, and I need to work in their names, in their honor!"

"Kaede..." Tsumugi trailed off, staring at her, then looked back to the key on the ground, "Heh. There you are."

"There I am?" Kaede asked, curbing her enthusiasm.

"There you are," Tsumugi said, lifting a hand to cover her mouth as she laughed a bit, "Kaede Akamatsu. It's you. The Kaede that I met before The Killing Game. The Kaede who woke up here. Of course we were having problems. I was busy being in love with a different version of you, I couldn't be there for the version of you who didn't know about Despair."

"Same to you, Tsumugi," Kaede said, "It hurt so much, feeling that way. Like I should be more upset about our dead friends. Like even in a Killing Game, it should have been worse, and I felt guilty, and I just wanted to hide and hold on to you. And now I know that I can't do that anymore."

"That's right," Tsumugi said, reaching out and placing a hand against Ryoma's hat which she had placed on Kaede's head, "There's something we have to do here."

"For Chabashira, and Gokuhara, and Idabashi," Kaede said, wrapping her arms around herself as she spoke. She was getting choked up, but smiling, "We'll find out the truth of this Killing Game. And then when it's all over, do you know what we'll do? We'll work hard together and we'll make a world they would have wanted to live in. A world of hope."

"And, for everyone else we've lost," Tsumugi said, "We'll find out who was responsible for their death and suffering. Who put them in this Killing Game. It's the least that we can do, after all."

"The proper way to mourn the world," Kaede said, "And the way to mourn our friends we've lost to that world... Is to fix it for them, right?" She crouched down next to the key on the ground, "And maybe once we've done that, we'll be able to cry for them too."

"Maybe so," Tsumugi said, crouching next to her, "But would they want us to cry?"

"No, I don't think so," Kaede said, "They'd want us to smile, knowing that we succeeded where we failed before."

"That's right," Tsumugi agreed, then wrapped her fingers around the key, as did Kaede, and when they both pulled on it together, it came up from the floor. They held a rusty key, with no idea what it could unlock. But it was a key to something. And in their hearts was the key to their future.


	178. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Borrowed Time)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In honor of Kaito's birthday being yesterday, here's a King Of The Bugs

  
"So what do you think this key could be for?" Tsumugi asked after she and Kaede spent quite a bit of time simply staing at the strange object that they both held.

"That's a very good question," Kaede said, "I have no idea. I haven't noticed any locked doors around that we don't already know about, especially not any that could take a key like this one."

"New areas open up all the time, though," Tsumugi said, "Especially after a trial, right? So maybe there's something new somewhere, that we could use this for..."

"I was thinking that," Kaede said, "Tojo's lab... If she was going to get one, it would have been available now, right? That means we should at least be able to find the door to it, if nothing else. I doubt it'll take a key, but..." She slipped the key into her bag, then crossed her arms, "Well, I guess if we wanted to get inside there, we'd probably need to find Ouma first. I wonder if he'd actually be interested in helping us, though. That trial must have been rough on him."

"What do you mean?" Tsumugi asked.

"I mean," Kaede lifted one hand and shrugged a bit, "He and Chabashira were pretty good friends. I can't imagine it's easy."

"Oh... Now that you mention it," Tsumugi said, "That's right. I almost forgot, because he was so confrontational with her during the trial... Is it just me, or is it harder to tell what he's thinking now?"

"Saihara's death had a different impact on all of us," Kaede said, "But I think, that Ouma was always like this. I was at the top of my game back when we all first met within The Killing Game, anyway. He was acting this way then, until he found a reason to stop being antagonistic, you know?"

"Maybe," Tsumugi said, "I never noticed."

"Well, it's fine," Kaede brushed the topic off, "We can ask if he'll help, anyway. If he won't, then we'll figure something else out. And I think that I know where he'd be right now, too."

"Can I call you a psychic yet?" Tsumugi asked with a quiet chuckle.

"No, not until I'm right," Kaede said, grabbing Tsumugi's hand and just pulling her a bit down the hallway to stand in front of the door to Tenko's lab, "Help me open this door, will you? I can't do it by myself."

"If you can't do it by yourself, then how was Ouma supposed to get inside on his own?" Tsumugi asked.

"Come on Tsumugi, who says he was alone? Angie followed him into the elevator, after all," Kaede said, "And since there's no sign of her either, it's not like we can make any assumptions that they split up," She noted, then they both grabbed hold of the heavy door and pulled it open. Kaede thought to herself that her deduction had only about a 30% chance of being correct, and as the door gave way, she found that she fell squarely in the other 70%. The room was empty. Cold. Lifeless.

Kaede had never been in here without Tenko before.

She looked up to the ropes course which crossed the ceiling, and her muscles still ached from the previous afternoon, when she'd joined Tenko and Miu in taking that challenge. That was so recent, and now, Tenko was just gone. The high ceilings that were once inviting just echoed with that loss.

Even still, Kaede thought, it was _so recent_ that Shuichi had sat across from her, trying his level best to play catch-up. They'd only been here for eleven days. Eleven days, nine deaths. So much happening all at once, so much loss, why did she ever beat herself up about how little she could cry, how she couldn't scream in anguish, even before she knew that she came from a world of despair, where loss like this was common? Eleven days.

Ten since Korekiyo, who Kaede now knew to have a virtuous heart in spite of his talent, ended his own life before it could be taken. Nine since Himiko and Kirumi had their lives pit against each other, and in an act of luck, Kirumi's won. Nine since Tenko decided to accelerate the divide that was forming between her friends, and Kaede now understood that to be an act of good intentions. It was better to have one person to blame for a split, than to slowly drift into two camps resenting each other.

Eight days since she, Shuichi, and Tsumugi had shared their pasts with each other as a show of faith and friendship. Seven days since everybody worked together to bring Kokichi's magic show around quicker, unknowingly following Kaito and Rantaro's plan to save Maki from committing a murder. Six days since the plan failed, and Kaito took one for the team, and optimistically thought The Mastermind could possibly be discovered before Maki was executed for a crime she didn't even remember committing. Six days since, seeking comfort in the wake of that misfortune, Shuichi and Kokichi decided to officially become an item.

Five days since Monokuma gave its first motives, the infirmary became available for use, and Kaede learned another one of Tsumugi's secrets. Five days since Kaede's own motives were handed out and she needed to admit to a deep secret, and still faced scrutiny, and saw the weaker side of Tenko for the first time. Four days since Ryoma decided it would be in everybody's best interest if he switched sides, while Kirumi laced the food with sleeping pills and Kiibo lured Shuichi to Kokichi's lab just before night fell. 

Three days since Kaede had to discover one of her best friends dead. Three days since Kaede thought she and Tenko were going to die, trapped underground. Three days since Kaede's other best friend murdered Kirumi, and Kaede had to fear that she'd be executed for it. Three days since Kaede had to watch somebody who she believed in die the death of a thousand cuts. Three days since Kaede lost sight of her identity as the Ultimate Detective. Three days since Kaede decided to stand with a killer.

And it was two days since Kaede and Tenko talked, above the very manhole which had trapped them, and Kaede fell for the lie that Tenko fed her about Gonta's escape. She wanted to believe it. And it was believable because Tenko wanted to believe it too, even as she knew it was wrong. Tenko would have preferred it if the outside world was a hopeful place, and Gonta had escaped alone. It was two days since Kaede learned that Ryoma was dying, and had to keep another secret from Tsumugi.

One day since Kaede came to terms with the fact that her love might not be good for her. One day since Kaede failed to open the Escape Tunnel and learn the truth. One day since Kaede became the Failed Ultimate Detective again, forced to leave the outcome of the next trial to faith and luck.

Zero days since Kaede was imprisoned. Zero days since she was forced to sit and wait out an investigation, knowing who was dead and wishing she could do something to find justice for him, but locked away with her useless, spent talent. Zero days since Kaede had to see a close friend of hers despair, fall to pieces, lose all hope and suffocate. Zero days since Kaede resolved to do better than she had.

And twelve days.

Twelve days since she told all of her friends how much she loved them.

And though it all, that was time which could mean something to her. It didn't matter how long the days were or how long they passed. They were days. Days she got to spend with people she loved, even if she didn't always realize it. Days that meant something. Extra days.

Because it was two hundred and fourteen days since Kaede was supposed to be killed.

Even _she_ could appreciate borrowed time.


	179. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Carrying on Tenko)

"Kaede," Tsumugi reached out, touching her shoulder, "Are you okay?"

Kaede hesitated, then turned to Tsumugi and nodded, letting a smile over her face. It wasn't joyful, but it wasn't bitter either. It was triumphant, as she spoke, "I'm okay. I'm more than okay. I'm alive, and I have so many memories. I can carry on the memories of our friends, you know?" She looked out over the empty lab one more time, taking a deep breath, "Come on, Tsumugi. Let's do the ropes course."

"Wh-What?" Tsumugi questioned, taking a step back, "Are you serious? There's more important-"

"No, I mean it," Kaede said, balling her hands into fists and leaning towards Tsumugi in earnest, "What could be more important, than carrying on the memory of a lost friend, Tsumugi? We can figure out the truth of the Academy, sure, in a little bit. First, I wanna know the truth of Tenko Chabashira. I want to be able to feel the kind of way that she did, when she was happy, when she was developing her talent that she was so proud of! I want to go to everybody's Ultimate Labs and I want to understand what they were really, really like!"

"I... Well, okay, but why?" Tsumugi asked.

"Jeeze, I'll tell you later!" Kaede said, then grabbed Tsumugi by the upper arm and dragged her to the ladder, gesturing to it, "Come on, you first!"

"Umm..." Tsumugi paused, looking at Kaede for a second, then looked away with a snicker, "Kaede, did you, forget that I'm wearing leggings?"

"Huh...?" Kaede took a second, blinked a few times, then sighed and started to climb the ladder.

"Even at a time like this," Tsumugi shook her head as she pushed her glasses up, then started to climb after Kaede, "You're looking for those type of opportunities... I guess that works on most girls in skirts though, huh? It's a clever trick..."

"Even at a time like this?" Kaede asked, smirking though Tsumugi couldn't currently see her face, "Tsumugi... As Momota would say, should the opportunity to peek upskirt arise, a man who denies the opportunity sacrifices his honor!"

"Would Momota have said that...?" Tsumugi asked, pure curiosity in her voice, "Ah, well. I don't think you have to worry about sacrificing your manly honor, Kaede."

"Yes I do! At least, I will when we get to Momota's Lab! Though..." She gave a sheepish chuckle, "Maybe you should take the lead there. You actually kind of like bugs, right, Tsumugi?" She reached the top of the ladder, then turned and held out her hand to help Tsumugi up the rest of the way.

"Thanks," Tsumugi said, then stood up on the top of the platform, "Yeah, I'll deal with the bugs, probably. So... Do you think we can get all the way across this course?"

"I dunno," Kaede said, shrugging, "Do we have to? I just want to do it. Doesn't matter if we succeed. But we need to try, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it," Tsumugi said, then stepped forward and looked down at the safety netting, "Well, I guess that it does seem like fun. If nothing else, we could use some stress relief..."

"If you wanna think of it that way," Kaede said, then lifted an arm above her head and leaned to the side, "Come on, you know what Chabashira would say right now? Stretch first, or your muscles will cry tomorrow!"

"I don't want my muscles to cry," Tsumugi admitted, then tried to imitate Kaede's motions, "Um, I've never stretched out before. I was never exactly athletic or anything..."

"I used to do calisthenics!" Kaede said. She did morning calisthenics all the time, before her mom decided it was unsafe to keep electronics with connection to the outside world, "That's basically just stretching so that you're ready to face the day, so just follow my lead, okay? Chabashira actually complimented my stretching technique before..."

"She wasn't lying, huh?" Tsumugi said, frowning, "She really thought she was doing the best thing for us. She really cared. And... So did Idabashi. We can't condemn them for caring, even if they were misguided..."

"You were misguided too," Kaede said, "Doesn't make what you did any less bad. But we can be mad about the mistake, not the person. It's what our friends deserve."

"I wish that we remembered sooner," Tsumugi sighed, "If Idabashi knew the whole truth, he wouldn't have thought that, right? I mean, as far as I remember, he wasn't really happy with his position in the Future Foundation when we knew him..."

"I knew him longer than you," Kaede said, finishing up her stretches, "And he was really getting to learn, the difference between being sad and being Despair. If he remembered, he never would have planned out any of that. While Chabashira..."

"I guess it's different," Tsumugi said, "They both ended up wanting the same thing, but..."

"Idabashi thought he was protecting the world from us," Kaede said, "And Chabashira thought she was protecting us from the world."

"They were both wrong," Tsumugi said, "But I guess I was more wrong. I didn't have any bigger things in mind than just what I had right in front of me. I was just thinking of protecting you from Monokuma. And avenging Saihara. Depending on what I was thinking about in that moment... Even I couldn't tell you, one hundred percent, what I was thinking. Why I did it. Nothing grandiose like them."

"Tsumugi," Kaede froze in her stretching, and dropped her arms to her side, "You did do it, huh?"

"I did," Tsumugi said, "You knew that, though. Ouma only wishes he could have done it. And nobody else could have, not really. It was me. And you knew that all along. And you still stood by me, like I wasn't a murderer."

"Well," Kaede said, "I didn't know it yet, but I was still friends with Shinguji before. And he was a murderer by profession. He killed a lot of people, and to stay alive a lot of them weren't even Despair at all. I guess that... You know, I said this before. My moral compass is kind of broken, but I'm okay with that now. I'll follow my heart, wherever that takes me. And right now it's taking me to do everything I can for our dead friends."

"I can't say that I can feel the same conviction as you... Not like that. I want to finish my research. But I'll also stand by you, and help you with whatever you need, because you were here for me when I made my biggest mistake," Tsumugi said.

"I know," Kaede said, then without another word, started the course. And Tsumugi followed.


	180. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Your Actions Have Consequences)

Kaede and Tsumugi both ended up in the safety netting. Obviously, a ropes course designed to challenge and strengthen the Ultimate Anthropologist would be difficult for two people who never did much athletic activity in the first place, but it was something. Kaede climbed down from the net, shook off the ropeburn on her hands, and then put those hands on her hips as she addressed Tsumugi, "Okay! That was... Invigorating. Where to next? It's up to you."

"Momota's lab," Tsumugi said, adjusting her glasses with both hands, "Please tell me you don't want us to fight each other in Gokuhara's lab..."

"Not each other, the punching dummies," Kaede said, "But yes. We need to understand Gokuhara too. Promise, I'll explain my reasons soon, but I just need some time to prove my theory right before I go telling anyone else about it, even you. I don't want to prove myself wrong and look like a fool, after all."

"Ah... Okay," Tsumugi said, then started to smile, "You're always dragging me along on things like this, Kaede."

"I am, aren't I?" Kaede asked, then lifted one hand to give her a fake salute, "You know, somebody had to get you away from the lab bench from time to time. You'll never have a breakthrough if you're right up in the work the whole way through. Anyway, Momota's Lab, right? Let's go."

"Yes, that's right," Tsumugi agreed, then made her way out of Tenko's lab. They hadn't closed the door behind them, so it was actually easy for her to lead the way downstairs to Kaito's lab. She stepped inside, then startled for a moment as she spoke, "Oh! Amami! I didn't expect to see you here."

"Iruma and I finished getting the picnic put together, with a bit of time to spare before the nighttime announcement," Rantaro said, "So I decided to come and feed the bugs, before I forgot, since I didn't get the chance earlier. Would you want to walk back down with me, to eat?"

"Oh, we could do that," Kaede said, "I kind of forgot, that you were doing this..."

"Insects might not be my favorite things in the world," Rantaro said, "But it was me or Momota, back then. And then I even went as far as to disrespect his sacrifice... Well, it's the least I can do, you know?"

"Yeah," Kaede said, "I understand. Actually, the reason we're here is because I wanted to visit all of our fallen friends' labs as part of the investigation. I think that if I can understand the things they all loved, then I might be able to understand how and why this is happening."

"That makes sense," Rantaro said, crossing his arms over his chest, "You've got to make sure you check every inch of this place... Have you found anything yet?"

"Are you going to tell Angie if I tell you?" Kaede asked, "We should probably trade information, since she was investigating before me and all. If we put our heads together, we can figure this out!"

"I would," Rantaro said, sighing, "But I still don't know where she is. I think she told me most of what she found out, though."

"She and Ouma managed to just completely vanish in the time it took us to leave the courtroom?" Tsumugi asked, "That's a bit strange. I hope that nothing's happened to either of them."

Rantaro nodded, looking away as he did, "Me too. I don't think that anything would have, though. I mean, they can both handle themselves pretty well... I think. Those two used the most Flashback Lights before the trial, after all. If they were ever really in danger, it was while Angie was collecting the lights, not now that she's used them and we all know the contents."

"She shouldn't have waited so long to share all of those," Kaede said, narrowing her eyes and looking to the side, "I can't say that Chabashira and Gokuhara wouldn't have come up with the same plan... Or that it even could have been stopped before Gokuhara was killed. But even people who do terrible things deserve a second chance... If we'd had these lights used as they were discovered, maybe I would have been more ready to investigate the Academy. Maybe I would have found The Mastermind before any trial needed to happen."

"Didn't Ouma do just that?" Tsumugi asked, "Kaede, what makes you think that if you were the one who knew it, things would have gone any differently?"

Kaede hesitated, digging her fingernails into her palm on one hand as she debated that question. Her answer was one she had to give reluctantly, but she and Tsumugi had decided not to keep secrets from each other anymore, "Ouma said he couldn't bring himself to kill The Mastermind, even though he knows who it is. He still kept it quiet even when it would save Chabashira, who stood at his side from the very beginning of the game. We could have changed her mind if we tried hard enough... If I had known The Mastermind, I would kill them. I don't know what would happen to me or what I'd do after... Maybe I'd become Despair and have to be killed too, but even that's better than the position we ended up in. Too many of our friends are dead."

"Akamatsu..." Rantaro trailed off, staring at her, then took a deep breath and held a hand to his chest as he looked away again, "Well, I suppose that in our world, you have the right idea. You have to be brave enough to hurt the people you love sometimes... But don't you think that maybe, killing The Mastermind could backfire? Idabashi wanted to destroy the Despair he observed in us, and he was wrong. Shirogane, you wanted to protect Akamatsu or avenge Saihara, depending how we look at it. All that managed to do was lose us another one of our friends, just because Idabashi tricked her into helping. Chabashira and Gokuhara wanted to hide the outside world from us, but we found out about it during her trial and the knowledge turned out to be good for us to have."

"Obviously it could backfire," Kaede said, "You think I don't know that? It's not like killing someone is ever the right thing to do, it's never a good thing! There will always be consequences, and the people around you will never be able to look at you in the same way again, if you don't just get killed for doing it! It's the biggest mistake you could ever make, but... I don't think that I could help myself, but to think of how much better off everyone here will be if The Mastermind dies. Monokuma said it. If that happens, the game is over. It's finished. And someone's finally answered for making us do something as awful as a Killing Game."

"I..." Tsumugi started to speak, but just let her words dissipate into the air as she took a few steps backward, bringing her hands up to hide her face as she started to get choked up, "I know that, okay? I know... That it's impossible to look at me without thinking of me as a murderer. I never expected to survive. I never expected..."

"To have to deal with consequences of your actions?" Kaede asked, finishing the sentence as she turned to look at Tsumugi.

"Truth be told," Rantaro spoke up, also turning to look her direction, "You're lucky that Akamatsu's been there for you. If not for her, you'd still be locked in your lab. Be grateful for what you've got since then, the consequences could have been much worse."

"Yeah," Kaede said, approaching Tsumugi with her hands clasped behind her back, "After all, I could have _hated_ you. And if this were anything but a Killing Game, I really would have. I had to decide, even though I didn't even know where the love I felt for you came from at the time, that I wouldn't let anger eat me up. Because I knew you had to do that when you thought I was the one who killed Saihara. But there's still going to be more consequences. Even out in the real world, you're always going to have to deal with what you did. You'll keep being punished. But you know what?" She gave a weak smile, "I'll be punished, too. Just for standing by you. For letting my feelings overcome my morality. But since I'm already condemned to that, you'll still have me next to you."

"Kaede, I'm sorr-" Tsumugi started again, only for Kaede to reach out and grab her wrist, pulling it away from her face.

"Shut up," Kaede said, staring her in the eyes, "Even if I love you, there's one thing I've had quite enough of! You keep acting like you deserve sympathy for killing someone! Like you were forced into it, but nobody forced you. And you're really lucky, if I'm being honest, that Idabashi decided he would kill Saihara. And I know that you didn't do it for me. As soon as you knew it was Tojo, you knew it was Idabashi too. If it was anybody else who Idabashi killed, you wouldn't win over him for who should have lived. And that's not something new for you to feel bad about, it's another blessing you should count."

"Y-You're right," Tsumugi stammered out, wiping her eyes with the hand that Kaede wasn't holding hostage, "Jeeze... That was really mean to say, you know. It's not like I haven't been saying those types of things all along..."

"I was being honest. Didn't we promise we'd do that?" Kaede said, then let go of Tsumugi's wrist, "Hoshi said that you can become a good person. So prove it. Stop dwelling on the past like you're still that bad person and look to a better future. And when you said those things before, I know you didn't mean them the way I did. You didn't mean that you should have died instead of Idabashi like it was a miracle you didn't, you meant it like you were fishing for my sympathy, but really, I should have just been saying that you had some damn good luck that's all that happened," She paused, then turned to see Rantaro was still there and gave him a sheepish smile, "Sorry you had to see that."

"Eh," Rantaro shrugged, "I'm kind of used to witnessing incredibly private personal moments that aren't my business and pretending like I forgot I saw them. No big deal."


	181. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Carry On Kaito)

"Anyway," Kaede said, changing the subject, "Tsumugi, interact with the bugs."

"Interact with the bugs...?" Tsumugi asked, adjusting her glasses, "You really don't know anything about entomology, huh? That's such a vague instruction. I'm going to let one loose in the room then recapture it. That's what Momota would want to do in here, probably."

"If you're going to do something like that, then Amami and I should probably leave the room..." Kaede chuckled nervously.

"No, you shouldn't!" Tsumugi exclaimed, "Momota wanted to go catch bugs with Saihara and Maki, I remember that! They thought it would be a really fun bonding experience, but they never got the chance... So if you really want to honor our fallen friends, then there has to be three of us, catching a bug, together."

"She has a point," Rantaro admitted, "So, we should close our eyes, and you'll let the bug out to give it a head start, then we have to find and recapture it? What bug?"

"I'll make it pretty easy on you and go for a Hercules beetle," Tsumugi said, pressing her hands together, "That was one of Momota's favorite types, you know... He was the one who came to fetch me for The Killing Game, and he helped me calm down by letting me hold one of these. It was very kind of him."

"Oh, I understand," Kaede said, "But that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it..."

"Well, it probably won't land on you or anything," Tsumugi said, holding a finger to her cheek, "And it's just one bug, so chances are I'll catch it before either of you get the chance, so don't worry too much about it. We're just trying to preserve Momota's spirit, right? Don't you want to show off your manly honor again?"

"You're not going to let me live that down, huh?" Kaede asked, groaning with a hand against her forehead, "Okay, I'll close my eyes so you can free the beetle, I guess."

Once Kaede and Rantaro both shut their eyes, Tsumugi freed the Hercules beetle, then spoke a few moments later, "Okay, it's got a headstart! We need to catch it and return it to its enclosure now."

"Right," Rantaro said, "Then we'll go and eat together, right?"

"Exactly," Kaede said, already moving around the room. She didn't consider herself _especially_ squeamish, but she still wanted to keep moving around so that the bug wouldn't think about landing on her. Touching bugs was something she wasn't keen on, though being around them didn't bother her much.

It didn't take long for Tsumugi's prediction to come true. Kaede and Rantaro didn't have to do much of anything, and Tsumugi captured the Hercules beetle. After she returned it to the enclosure, she took a deep breath and put her hands on her hips, "Okay! Well, that was a pretty lame imitation of what I think catching bugs is supposed to be like, but... I somehow feel like I was able to become closer to Momota by doing it. What about you two?"

"Yeah," Rantaro said, "I can see how that could be fun, if we did it right... Just to be able to work hard on something with a friend, even if I'm not a big fan of insects myself. I think that he'd be happy to know that we tried at all."

"I agree..." Kaede trailed off, then looked around the room one more time before she approached the door, "Well, let's get going, then. We should eat so we can keep investigating... I don't plan on sleeping tonight, to be honest. You don't have to follow in my steps, though."

"I don't think any of us plan on going to sleep until we have to," Rantaro said, "It feels wrong, somehow, to try going to sleep _so_ soon after somebody died. Need a few more hours of processing, you know? Or I'll just have nightmares about it. Don't know about you guys."

"I do have a lot of nightmares," Tsumugi said, "So I understand. Not only did Chabashira just get killed, we just found out Gokuhara was dead, and became more personally impacted by everyone before them... I might be able to fall asleep but I could never get any rest."

"I can't rest until I find justice for all of them," Kaede said, holding her hands close to herself, "Because when we get down to it, the real Blackened in every single case is The Mastermind. It's their fault we were here. Their fault we were encouraged to kill each other in the first place. I can't stand by any longer."

"Everyone will help you," Rantaro said, "We all want the same thing."

"All but The Mastermind," Kaede said, lifting a hand to cup her chin, "That's a loaded concern, though... I mean, whoever The Mastermind is, everyone here has been helpful and friendly to everyone else. So The Mastermind has to be a pretty good actor, good enough to give us actual help even if it isn't in their own best interest."

 

"That's a good point," Tsumugi said, "As much as I hate them in concept, it's hard to think of anyone here being such an awful person. It's kind of impressive."  
"We're... Thinking about it wrong," Kaede came to a realization, "We can't think about who could do something so awful, we have to divorce the idea of The Mastermind from the idea of our friends. That must be what Ouma had to do, to figure out who it was and decide that he didn't want them to die."

"Thinking that way, it really could be anybody," Tsumugi said, "Maybe we'll think better on a full stomach, though? And I mean, we've only just started investigating. Having theories right away is kind of strange."

"True," Kaede said, "We can't jump to conclusions or make wild conjectures. We need to have all the cards before we start seriously theorizing."

"Yeah," Rantaro said, "I think, though, when you do start theorizing... You need to try applying the information from every angle. Think about it in relation to everybody here, because while the evidence might make sense with one person, it could make more sense with another. After all, in those memories, we did all agree to do this. It's possible we could have also forgotten helping to plan it."

"I didn't even think about that..." Kaede trailed off, stopping where she stood in the middle of the hallway, "You always think of things like that, Amami. It was very helpful in the first three trials... You make me think of things in a different way than I naturally would have. I guess that there could be red herrings if we all helped with the planning in small ways... It's clear that The Mastermind is the one who was most involved, but I guess there's the possibility we contributed too, since there was no getting out of it."

"Probably not much, though," Tsumugi said, and they started walking again, "I can't imagine we'd be that keen on causing despair for our future selves... Though, I guess we still don't know the purpose of The Killing Game."

"Angie was saying something like that," Rantaro said, "That the Killing Game might have a real cause behind it. I find it kind of hard to believe that could be possible, though."

"Hey!" Miu called out to them as they stepped into the courtyard, "Here to eat? How's the investigation going?"

"It's going okay, and yeah, we are," Kaede answered as she sped up a little to check out the spread on the picnic tables, "Whoa! You made all of this?" There was way more food than they could possibly eat, and quite a variety of easy-to-eat foods that could sit out for a while.

"I had Amami's help, after all," Miu said, stepping up next to Kaede, "With his help, I was able to make all of the best picnic food recipes that I know! I figured you'd need some good fuel for your investigation, after all."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> by the way if you check the fic description there's maps now


	182. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Picnic)

Kaede approached the spread of food, taking one of the riceballs and beginning to eat where she stood. It was finger food, easily eaten out of one hand, which was especially convenient for what was shaping up to be a night full of investigation and difficult thought. Rantaro grabbed some food too, smirking across the table at her and Tsumugi, "See, I could have told you the sort of thing Iruma decided to prepare to help you out, but I thought she'd want to see you be surprised."

"Hm?" Miu asked, putting her hands on her hips as she averted her eyes, "Nooo way! I don't need validation like that, I just want to do what I can to support you!"

"You've done everything to support us, ever since we got here," Kaede said, smiling in her direction, "And we don't thank you nearly enough. You've done all of this for us without asking anything in return."

"Especially now that I know the extent to which my skills were used for unfortunate outcomes in the outside world, I'm glad to give my entire self to everybody here. I know that with you, I'm working for real benefit," Miu said, clasping her hands in front of herself, "Though, I have to admit, it's a little annoying that nobody _really_ took me up on that offer, and now everyone left is taken, or gay, or Hoshi who probably wants nothing to do with that kind of thing! You know, it's kind of hard to be someone who uses sex to cope surrounded by other people with trauma..." She pouted just a little bit as she admitted this.

"Well," Rantaro said, "That _is_ unfortunate, but I'm also pretty sure there aren't high chances that even if we had all led perfectly normal lives but you, anything like that would actually happen during a Killing Game."

"Come on, you never know," Miu whined, then returned to her usual upbeat demeanor, "Not like I'm blaming you guys or anything! I know that I made it really clear enough that if anyone actually wanted to do something like that with me, you would have."

"True," Kaede said, crossing her arms.

"Sorry," Tsumugi said, stepping up next to Kaede and grabbing food for herself, "I'm pretty sure Kaede would have definitely gone for that if I hadn't gotten her to fall for me..."

"Tsumugi!" Kaede protested, "They don't need to know that! Nobody needs to know that, come on!"

Tsumugi stuck her tongue out, then teased, "You're allowed to look so I'm allowed to call you out for looking, as publicly as I want."

"Fine, I guess that's fair," Kaede said.

"Wow, I wish I'd known before Shirogane scooped you up for herself," Miu joked, "Well, anyway. What have you found so far?"

"Not much," Kaede said, "Except, well, there is a key. It's really fancy and ancient looking, have you seen any doors that something like that might work for?"

"Hm, I don't know," Miu said, looking up as she thought, "I feel like, maybe? But I couldn't say for sure. I mean, right now I'm having a little bit of a tough time remembering when certain things happened, little details. I've been in so many locations, I could have seen plenty of doors like that, I just can't remember if it was in The Killing Game or not."

"You think you're having a hard time placing memories on your timeline, think how much trouble I must be having," Kaede said, "Well, actually, it's not that hard for me, I'm just joking about my own problems. Really, given my talent, I can recall context if nothing else to give me a general idea of when something was. I'm probably better off, to tell the truth. I'm not in the habit of vague memories."

"That's a good point," Miu said, "Having a concept of the passage of time might actually be making it harder to know when things are happening, if we're associating with memories how long ago they feel at the expense of some of their context... Right?"

"Huh, I didn't think of it that way," Rantaro said, "That's almost philosophical."

"Doesn't that make sense, coming from me?" Miu asked, doing a small curtsy, "After all, I have to be widely capable, especially when it comes to those things which people see as sophisticated pursuits. I could actually cite quite a number of philosophers if you desired me to, for some weird reason!"

"I can't see that being relevant," Tsumugi said, "But then again, my knowledge of lab equipment came in handy during a trial, so you never know..."

"Yeah..." Miu trailed off, holding her hands to her chest with a sigh, "Do you think Monokuma will ever allow the person who flipped Maki's switch to confess, if that person is even still alive?"

"The thing is," Kaede said, "Probably not. That probably won't be allowed, because Monokuma made a mistake. The Mastermind and the person who flipped Maki's switch are not the same person, it said as much and I don't think it was lying. If anyone, correct or not, confessed to it... That means we wouldn't suspect them of being The Mastermind."

"So why wouldn't Monokuma just let somebody confess, and let The Mastermind confess it falsely to hide their identity?" Rantaro asked.

"Maybe it has principles against that type of thing," Kaede said, "It seems like it does care about its own rules, if nothing else. That's something we may have to keep in mind as we try to figure this all out."

"What if," Miu piped up, "It's possible to trick Monokuma? I wouldn't know how, but surely there must be some way of using its own rules against it."

"A game that you're forced to play..." Another voice joined the conversation, and everyone turned to see Angie and Kokichi approaching from the direction of the school. Kokichi was the one who was speaking, though, "Could never be fun! That's what you're thinking, right? Couldn't help but overhear. So there's ways to end it laid out in the rules, but there's gotta be some other back alley exit. The Killing Game's version of being too tired to finish, deciding not to play anymore. Maybe, you just gotta find it!"

"You? Not we?" Miu asked, then continued off-topic, "By the way, you two, there's lots of food here, so help yourselves."

"Right, you," Kokichi said, putting a hand on his hip as he came to a stop next to one of the picnic tables, "I can't include myself, you know. After all, in Monokuma's perspective, I've already beat the game one of the ways outlined in the rules. I know who The Mastermind is. I figured it out, so I've won from a binary outlook. But the rest of you still have a chance~!"


	183. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Go The FUck To Sleep)

"Exactly what part of you thinks this is fine? Keeping the truth a secret from all of us," Kaede stepped forward, fists clenched and voice dripping with anger, "If you know who The Mastermind is, and you aren't telling us, then you're just as responsible as they are for Gokuhara, and Chabashira, and anything else that happens after this!"

"Come on, you really think anything else is gonna happen after this?" Kokichi asked, then chuckled a bit, "Ahh, what if I just jinxed it by saying that? Well, you know, it's not that important. Though I have to say, the only death on my hands is Chabashira's... As much as it stings my poor little heart that had to happen, I learned The Mastermind's identity after Gokuhara was already dead, so you can't hold that against me! And if anyone had to be responsible for her death, surely Chabashira would want it to be her best friend left alive...? Or maybe it wasn't really me at all, but Gokuhara, her best friend dead. If not for him, then neither one of them ever would have seen the awful truth. If not for his cooperation in his own murder, then she never could have done it."

"You're acting like you were there," Rantaro said, "Like you know what happened on the scene..."

"Mm? Well," Kokichi shrugged his shoulder and closed his eye, "I told you, I know who The Mastermind is. That might afford me certain privileges. Like, for example, getting the whole story from Monokuma after the fact. Maybe it told me that the whole thing was Gokuhara's idea in the first place, that he was afraid that the wounds he sustained in the tunnel would kill him anyway and that it was better if there was a culprit to be undiscovered... Well, maybe that's a bit beyond him! Let's say it was a truly collaborative effort between their lovely misguided souls!"

"Ouma, stop being a dick," Miu said, crossing her arms and frowning at him, "Or I won't let you have any of this delicious picnic cuisine I prepared so that we could all eat without dealing with the nighttime restriction on the Dining Hall!"

"Aww, come on, you'd really let me starve?" Kokichi asked, "That's not very cash money of you!"

"Go back to sleep, will you?" Miu asked, "I mean, it's been three days at least! Surely you must be tired enough by now to sleep on your own."

"I'm just getting started!" Kokichi said, grabbing one of the small sandwiches from the nearest picnic table, "I mean, I stayed up later than this before in my life, this isn't that weird for me or anything. It's not like I always had a human being or a fitting substitute to use all the time after I got kidnapped, plenty of times even I would just climb onto the roof instead of sleeping because I didn't trust the one human I was with~!"

"A fitting substitute?" Miu asked, furrowing her brow, "What do you mean, a fitting substitute? Could we have been getting you to go to sleep this whole time?"

"Nah," Kokichi said, shaking his head with a grin that didn't seem to carry any real joy, "Those only work after four days without sleep! I bet Amami could make one pretty easily, though, it's just a body pillow with a heating blanket stuffed between the pillow and the case. Hot anime boy imagery optional. Just need a humanoid lump, once I get beyond the point of being tired enough for the origin of that little quirk to actually factor in anymore! How's a pillow gonna protect me from being kidnapped again, huh?"

"I'm pretty sure we didn't already know these things about you," Tsumugi spoke up.

"Guess I've become tired enough to be oversharing beyond my means, that's a pain," Kokichi gave an exaggerated sigh and took a bite of his sandwich.

"Ouma's having a bit of an evening," Angie said, walking up next to Rantaro, "Hi Rantaro. Sorry, I had to deal with him. He's getting really manic now! And that's not a good thing to see in a Killing Game!"

"I've noticed," Rantaro said, nodding over to where Kokichi still had one sandwich hanging out of his mouth while reaching for a rice ball, "He didn't try to do anything rash, right?"

"No, nothing rash at all," Angie said, then looked to Kaede, "Hey, Kaede! Why's everyone still awake and talking about The Mastermind and stuff?"

"I'm investigating," Kaede said, then gestured to Tsumugi, "And Tsumugi is my assistant, which is why she's not locked in her lab right now. I'm going to get to the bottom of what's still missing from our memories. Why The Killing Game is happening. Who orchestrated it, and who The Mastermind is. Everything the Flashback Lights failed to tell us."

"Gotta say careful!" Kokichi chimed in, now holding his sandwich and rice ball flush to each other in his one uninjured hand. It seemed as his injuries were healing, his arm would be functional once it didn't hurt to move anymore, but his eye wasn't likely to recover, "I found one Flashback Light that had to be destroyed, cause it had super fake news in it. I think I can tell the difference though. Double check with me before you take any of the lights at face value because of that one I found which was definitely wrong."

"How would you be able to tell if it was wrong?" Tsumugi asked.

"It contradicted what I knew to be true," Kokichi said, "A real memory will always triumph over a false one, everyone knows that. Memories fill in spaces in your head. If there's two different ones in the same space, anyone in the world can figure out which is more real. Get enough experience that way, and you'll know what fake ones feel like without a real one there too! It's the only defense we as human beings have against being gaslighted, you know."

"I..." Angie trailed off, then facepalmed, "You need to sleep, for real, buddy!"

Kaede hesitated, then spoke up, "No, he has a point there. Somewhere in all of that, anyway. I think what he's trying to say is that one of his secret skills is the ability to tell fiction from reality, when it comes to ideas that other people might try to plant in your head."

"Percisely," Kokichi mispronounced a word, then bit his sandwich and rice ball at the same time. After he'd chewed and swallowed, he spoke again, "I did that on purpose, if you were wondering. I think rice and bread go well together, and these both have tuna salad in them, so... It's good. Good stuff Iruma, so sorry to be butchering it from the way it was intended to be eaten!"

"As long as you're enjoying it, I'm happy. I don't care what form my food is eaten in," Miu said, "The best compliment I ever received was when somebody put individual portions of a seven-course meal I'd prepared into a blender and said that the resulting smoothie still somehow tasted good."

"I wouldn't dream of playing will it blend with your cooking! This is the furthest I will go in my disgusting bastardization of your amazing work," Kokichi assured her.

"Anyway, Angie," Kaede tried to get back on track, "So far, I've been visiting the Ultimate Labs of all our fallen friends, and I also found a key on the ground up on the fifth floor. That's the extent of my discoveries so far. What do you think?"

"I think that's interesting," Angie said, "And I think that, y'know, even when he's like this! You'll probably need Ouma's help, right? Oh, and if I remember anything new about this place that the Flashback Lights didn't mention, I'll totally let you know. I know you can do a great job uncovering the secrets."

"Well, I hope I can," Kaede said, "I have to do it. For everybody. Everybody I ever knew."


	184. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Idea Of Memory)

"Oh, by the way!" Kokichi called out, "I have something to show everyone. You're checking out all of the labs, right? Well, Shuichi's isn't that difficult to get into, unlike Shinguji's. I was thinking that I'd open that one up to everybody at some point, and now's a better time than any, right? You've gotta be able to investigate everything."

"Yeah..." Kaede noted, trailing off, "Also, Ouma? Tojo's lab is probably somewhere we can get to the door of now. Do you think that you'd be able to help us to get in there too?"

"I can help you get absolutely anywhere," Kokichi said, "But yes, that doesn't seem difficult. The labs are some of the easier places to get into... Well, until they become jail cells, you know! I tried, and I could _not_ get into Shirogane's lab in any illegitimate way when it was serving as prison."

"So that's how you decided that somebody had to help Tsumugi break out that night," Kaede noted, "By the way, it was Hoshi, just because he couldn't spend too much time away from his lab. Not necessarily a smart move, but a harmless one."

"Mhm! If I can't break in, nobody can break out, that's for certain," Kokichi said, "That's my one truly Ultimate skill within my talent! Everything else is pretty normal, I'd say. Well, maybe I'm a _little_ extra skilled at the subterfuge of the act too."

"Yeah, whatever. Just matters that you'll help investigate," Kaede said with a slight chuckle. She couldn't help but be amused by Kokichi's behavior, even though she knew that it was being fueled by a mix of bitterness and sleep deprivation. Despite it being the result of a few factors, she remembered that he was a little bit more like this before latching onto Shuichi, so maybe he was just toning it down to have a better relationship with the only person he was truly interested in, in this place.

Everyone else could take him or leave him as they pleased, but he wanted to hold onto Shuichi. This might have been an exaggeration prompted by his lack of sleep, but this side of Kokichi had always been there. He just had something more important than being flippant for a little while.

"Obviously I'll help," Kokichi said, "I want the game to end just as much as anybody else! I just don't want it to happen the same way you guys do. So we'll just have to wait and see, now won't we?"

"Wait and see what?" Miu asked.

"Wait and see how this thing turns out ending," Kokichi said, tapping a finger against his own cheek now that he'd finished his multiple food items, "After all, we can't tell the future. And it'll end real soon, we just have to see what happens after all is said and done! Anyway, let's go get Shuichi's lab open, huh?"

"Good plan," Kaede said, "There might be something in there that you didn't notice before, or that you wouldn't have reason to notice. Plus, of course, there's all the art supplies that Saihara would have loved to use..."

"I think I see what you're getting at," Kokichi said, "You think we should all use the art supplies, even if we have absolutely no innate talent, because it'll help us feel closer to him even if he's dead? Good idea. Let's make a mural."

"A mural?" Angie asked, "That seems like a good idea, but what of, and where?"

"Of our friends, of course," Kokichi said as if it was beyond obvious that they should do that, "And I guess that the side of the school would be a good place, right? Then it can be like they're watching us investigate and cheering us on. They're gone, but they're not gone from our hearts and memories, and we should do something to show an impact that permanent."

"That's a really sweet idea," Miu said, poking Kokichi's cheek, "You're still just a big sap in there after all... I bet that Saihara's proud of you."

"He's proud of everyone," Kokichi said, "Just for surviving, you know? Because he's that type of person. He wouldn't judge any one of us for making mistakes, he'd just be glad that we're still trying. That we made it this far and we still haven't given up. That's the best some of us can do, and Shuichi would say that's worth celebrating."

"Yeah..." Kaede agreed, holding her arms in close to herself, "That's true. He wouldn't hesitate to forgive any one of us. He even made friends with this version of Shinguji, with his personal principles of killing scrubbed from his brain. That's hard to do, forgiving like that... Would he have even had a most hated person video?"

"Of course he would," Kokichi noted, "People who aren't hateful still have one person they like less than any other person. Since the videos did seem to restrict it to people we've personally met to hate, as far as I can tell, I couldn't possibly tell you who it would be. I'm sure Shuichi knows that truth of the universe, though."

"Mm," Angie agreed with him, "The truth that some people exist who are simply unforgivable, no matter what happens or where they end up going in life. Those are the only people worth hating, the people who get away with it. Who never face the music for their crimes."

Kaede nodded to that, "Oh, yes. It's much harder to feel like I hate Keiko, knowing that she was assassinated for becoming Despair... It's more of an indifference now. Rather than continuing to feel the anger that she left me behind, I can see all of her existence now that she paid for that. We had some good times, when we were both young. Before Despair touched our household. It's not a tragedy she died, but that she became Despair in the first place. That was when I lost her... I don't hate her now. I just feel sad."

"Your sister died?" Miu asked, frowning, "But, in the video I saw..."

"Shinguji assassinated her. She was his last mark before the Killing Game. At least they left him with the memory that he was at ninety-nine kills in his sister's name, rather than redacting that too," Kaede said, "The motive video probably cut off early, when she went to live with a group of Despairs. After all, if Monokuma wanted there to be the possibility of mistaking Keiko for me, death wouldn't work out to show."

"Well, here we are," Kokichi noted as the group came to a stop in front of the Ultimate Artist lab, "Let me just get the lock..." He stepped forward, crouched down, and undid the lock on it, then threw the doors open and gestured to the inside, "And here we are! Shuichi's lab is now open to the public."


	185. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Shuichi's Lab)

I drew this Angie on her birthday but forgot to include it till now

 

\---------  
In spite of Kokichi having apparently lived in it for a few days, the interior of Shuichi's Ultimate Lab actually seemed untouched. Though he was there, he hadn't actually done anything to any of the items inside. It seemed like he'd just wanted to be around them, and that was enough for him, abstaining from touching or using them in any manner.

There were paint cans in a corner, and brushes, which seemed like the best bet for making a mural on the wall of the school building. Kokichi approached them and spoke again, "Amami, Angie? Could you help me prime the wall? More than three people painting a wall white so it can be designed on is a little bit excessive, and that means that Iruma can take a turn helping the lesbians with their detective investigation!"

"Me?" Miu asked, seeming a bit surprised to be pointed out like that, but only for a moment before she flashed a confident smile in Kaede and Tsumugi's direction, "Of course, you can count on me! I've never investigated something of this scale before, but even before the trials, I was dragged into a number of dinner party murder mysteries, real and staged alike. I'm certain I can be of some assistance."

"We'll definitely help you paint," Angie said, putting her hands on her hips, "All arts are an expression of the soul! And painting primer is something that even a monkey with no artistic talent, as opposed to a very artsy monkey, can do. It's a very simple expression of the soul. The part of the soul that goes 'I want to just paint a whole wall white'. Everyone has that desire somewhere within their soul."

"Whatever you say, Angie," Kokichi said, "Long as it means you'll be helping me out," With that, he picked up a can of primer and left the lab again immediately, walking towards the school building.

"We should catch up with him," Rantaro said, grabbing two more cans while Angie scooped up a healthy number of paintbrushes. Okay, maybe a slightly excessive number of paintbrushes, but what else could be expected of those three? Kaede knew that they all had a flair for the dramatic, and even at a time like this, they were bound to be kind of extra occasionally.

"So it looks like it's the three of us investigating right now," Miu noted, already looking around the lab, "I must admit, my powers of observation are mostly related to seeing a spot that hasn't been cleaned, but I will do my best to repurpose them to our cause! Though, if only we knew more specifically what we were searching for. That would make it much easier to search, but I suppose that would just be _too_ easy."

"Well, there are two specific things we can keep an eye out for," Kaede said, "Flashback Lights, and a door that the key would work for. Does that help?"

"Yes, it does," Miu said with a nod, "A little bit, anyway. I'll keep my eyes peeled for either of those, though I can't make any guarantees. I'll always do my best, but my best might not be good enough in this case."

"Wow," Tsumugi noted, "You said that in your memory... You became a Failed Ultimate because someone was trying to make you become Ultimate Despair? That makes sense, because I can't imagine you'd fail any other way. It seems to me like you're proud of your skills, but you also know your limits. A lot of people can't be both."

"Why, thank you," Miu said, holding a hand to her mouth to hide her quiet giggle, "I _was_ trained by another Ultimate in a similar field to mine, so that may contribute to it. It was simply bad luck that I became captured by an Ultimate Despair, and in such a specific situation, anyone would come close to giving in. Luckily, Idabashi and Tojo smuggled me out of there before that could happen, but... In being captured, I had already failed."

"That standard's rough," Kaede noted, "I was tricked into helping an Ultimate Despair, using a device that the Ultimate Initiative had given to me, you know. Shinguji was sent to either retrieve me for the Killing Game, or kill me if I somehow agreed to become Despair after accidentally helping them. It's not like I meant to do that, though... It was kind of unfair,"

"That's a good point," Tsumugi said, "Though, I can certainly see why I was marked as a Failed Ultimate, your stories seem a little bit like the Ultimate Initiative saw us as disposable. But... That can't actually be true."

"I'm starting to think of a theory, but I'm not sure yet," Kaede said, cupping her chin her hand as she continued staring around the lab, "Well, there doesn't seem to be anything very interesting in here, I have to admit. Nothing stands out as weird to me... Iruma, would you mind it if we visited Maki's lab while you were here with us? I think that, since you knew her well, you might be able to tell if something was off about her Ultimate Lab."

"Of course," Miu agreed, "That sounds like a good idea to me. That's definitely something I'd be able to tell you. I have that room memorized, I'll be able to notice immediately if there was something strange or different about it!"

"Good to know," Kaede said, then began to walk in that direction, "Come on, then! We'll uncover the truth behind this place yet. I just need more evidence, need to know more about this building..."

"We'll find it," Tsumugi agreed, "There's no way that we can't figure it out, if we're all working to do it."

"Hey, you bastards!" Monokuma's voice suddenly flooded in through the PA system, "It's officially Nighttime! That means that the Gym and the Dining Hall are officially off-limits until morning, and you should be sleeping! But I know you won't be sleeping, you all already decided to pull a dumb all-nighter instead of taking care of your youthful bodies which need lots and lots of rest! Because you're all a bunch of idiots, but I guess that I can't stop you or anything... But just think about how tired you'll be tomorrow!"

And then its voice stopped, and Kaede sighed, scratching the back of her neck as she kept walking toward the school. That announcement meant nothing to her, except that she couldn't investigate Kokichi's lab. Then again, he was alive, and she'd investigated the lab plenty in the past. She couldn't imagine anything changing there. Even if it had, she'd look in the morning.

One night, however long she felt it as, was certainly not enough time to uncover all of the secrets she needed to.


	186. Daily Life: Day Eleven (A Lab Renovated)

Miu, Tsumugi, and Kaede arrived in Maki's lab, and there was immediately something different about it than when they'd seen it before. The grass was browning to a sickly shade around the pool of coolant, likely a result of Monokuma upping the quality to avoid a second overheating and memory wipe. Although, that was actually a bit strange if Kaede thought about it. Was it just too lazy to change back after Maki was executed?

And that was just one small, early detail of the differences to the lab, though Miu was the one to point out the next thing, "I think the branches have been trimmed back. They were much more full before, to a wild extent. Actually, this whole place... Has been tended to. It no longer looks like a lovely spot in a forest, but a garden that somebody put together, and without much care either..."

"Why, though?" Tsumugi wondered aloud, "What possible reason could there be, for such a drastic change to happen in Maki's lab?"

"Maybe it was changed because there's some sort of secret here," Kaede offered, "We should thoroughly investigate this place, even more than the other labs. There's got to be something it's hiding."

"Right," Miu agreed, and started to walk in grids around the room, a common tactic used to avoid missing anything, often used in cleaning and investigations alike. While Miu used the methodical method, Kaede got to investigating individual items more closely. Tsumugi ignored both of them and approached the coolant pool, crouching down next to it.

Moments later, Tsumugi spoke up, "Kaede. We should collect a sample of this pool and test it, very carefully, in your lab. I don't think it's coolant, and I don't want to risk touching it if it's something strange."

"Hm? Yeah, okay," Kaede said, turning back to Miu, "I'm going to get some supplies from my lab, to collect this stuff in safely. You keep doing what you're doing."

"Can do," Miu said, continuing her grid-pattern investigation without even stopping when Kaede talked to her. With that, Kaede left the room, making her way back to her own lab. As she approached it down the hallway, though, a wild Monokuma appeared to block her path.

"Monokuma," Kaede said, addressing it directly, "What are you doing? You can't interfere if we aren't breaking any rules, right?"

"...Right," Monokuma said, speaking slowly, its cadence entirely different from the way it normally talked. It almost sounded serious for once, unlike its usual utterly flippant demeanor, "That's true. But I can still have a conversation with you, and I urge you to cease your investigation. Circumstances have changed. The Killing Game will soon be over, and all will be explained."

"I wouldn't trust any explanation coming from you," Kaede said, "Let me past. I have to finish what I started. The secrets lie within this Academy, don't they? It's a Killing Game. The game wouldn't be fair if it wasn't possible to figure out the truth if we try hard enough. I'd trust that sooner than I'd trust you."

"...Well, you can do what you want," Monokuma said, "Obviously. But I do have one thing to say. Whatever truth you find, this Killing Game is different from those of the past. The truth hidden here does exist, but it isn't the whole truth. Our conversation right now is not being broadcast. This Killing Game has already failed. All that can be done now is to salvage whatever we can from the wreckage of the attempt. Any truth you'll find here is a truth meant for a Killing Game which achieved its goal. This one cannot achieve that goal now. It is defunct. As failed as every one of you."

With that, Monokuma left, walking slowly away from Kaede as she fixed a vindictive stare at its back. She wanted to express her continued distrust, and while she could do that in her expression, she couldn't find the words. That was such an odd thing, she thought, for Monokuma to say. It seemed like a prideful thing, why would it ever admit that something even could go wrong, let alone that it did?

She shook the conversation from her mind, for now. Filing it away in the back of her thoughts, to go back to later if she had to. To examine later on, because she had other things to worry about right now.

She finished making her way to her lab, and once there, went looking for the right collection tools. A disposable pipette, a small beaker with a screw-top, and an evidence bag to store it in for further protection. If whatever was in that pool _wasn't_ coolant and had that sort of impact on the surrounding grass, Kaede didn't want to take any risks. She went and collected some, then brought it back to her lab to test it.

Obviously, she couldn't just figure out what it was through tests, she needed something to compare it to. If it wasn't coolant, then it had to be some sort of poison which came from her own lab. She opened up the cabinet and noted that no bottles seemed to be missing, and none had any amount notably missing. Not to say nothing had been used; a single drop was enough in some cases.

Kaede imagined that whatever it was would be a contact poison, so she pulled out all of them she could find which worked in small doses upon physical contact, and set all of those up to test as well. The material results would likely match between one of them and the pool, she just needed to learn which one, to figure out the severity. The next question of course, would be why there was poison in that lab.

She returned to the lab again once everything was set up, and crouched down next to the pool with Tsumugi, peering into it. It was too opaque to tell if there was anything in the bottom which might be protected by the possible poison, but Kaede voiced that option, "Maybe there's something in the bottom of the pool?"

"That's possible," Tsumugi agreed, then turned to look where Miu was, "Iruma! Have you found anything else?"

"Hm? Oh, a few things," Miu said, "I was waiting for Akamatsu to get back, but I see that she has. Give me just a minute to look at the notes I took in my Monopad, and I'll run through everything weird about this room..."


	187. Daily Life: Day Eleven (Very Odd Cuts)

“So,” Miu started, “There’s something really weird about this lab now. Several things. The first is that all of the trimming of everything here seems to have been done with improper tools. The branches are all frayed, like they were cut with something without any levering or serration. A smooth, singular blade. Like a sword or a chef's knife, or paring knife. Something like that. Because of that, I don't think Monokuma was responsible."

"Wouldn't doing something like this take a lot of time?" Kaede asked, frowning, "That's... weird to think about. I mean, nobody's unaccounted for that _much_ time. Hoshi was verifiably in his lab often enough, from my perspective, and I'm sure there are other people who can corroborate that fact. Everyone else is accounted for, too. This would have taken multiple nights, to do all of it. When was the last time somebody was in here?"

"Not long enough ago," Miu said, "As far as I know, it was right after Maki's execution. Saihara and Ouma came up here to paint the place, and Saihara would have noticed and told someone if there was something wrong with the landscape. Since then, there isn't anybody who lacks an alibi for more than two or three nights, and this is extensive. It could have been a collaborative effort, I guess... But why? There are flowers uprooted too, all sorts of things have been broken."

"And where are the cut branches?" Kaede wondered aloud, "Whoever did this would have to either hide the branches somewhere, or also somehow find a way to take them to the trash incinerator in the boiler room without being noticed, and get Monokuma to cooperate, too."

"Oh, that's right," Miu agreed, "Only Monokuma can access the incinerator, otherwise it would be much too easy to get away with a murder here. Where could the branches be? Do you think they might be underneath the floorboards or something similar?"

"Mm, no. I've been listening closely when we've been walking around, and they've all been sounding equally hollow. Trust me, I did think about things behind hidden down there," Kaede explained, "So that proves it. The key must go to something, because there's an area of the school that we haven't found yet. I'll also assume it's indoors somewhere, because moving this many branches outside would be too risky, especially for something so confusing."

"I wonder..." Tsumugi trailed off, then pushed her glasses up her nose, "Ah, this probably sounds really strange, but what if this person did burn them... But not as garbage? Burned them to charcoal in this secret area. The branches could be used as kindling, right?"

"You mean, wherever this person's been living, isn't heated?" Kaede asked, then paused a moment and looked away, holding a contemplative fist to her chin, "But it's within the main school building. What sort of location could that describe?"

"The deep basement," Miu offered, "There might be a portion of it that's beneath the normal basement, right? That could be accessed from some other location, without going outside. And as far as I could tell, there wasn't much upkeep done down there."

"Of course," Kaede pondered aloud, "That implies that there's a seventeenth person here. I don't like that implication. Why would there be another person? Monokuma's even been stating our total numbers in a way that makes it clear that we started with sixteen people."

"I can't help but feel like we're fixating too much on this one possibility," Miu admitted, fidgeting with her hands, "It's a lot of conjecture and not much evidence. Those three should be finishing up with the primer soon, and we'll have to wait for the tests on the pool's solution to be done, right? Let's take a break to make that mural, and then we can pick up investigating a different area, I think."

Kaede thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement, "You're right. I'm acting like the first explanation we thought of is the only possible explanation... I need to learn to look at situations from multiple different angles without being prompted. That's certainly a weakness of mine, as the Ultimate Detective."

"Mm, we need to take some time to think, and get all the evidence in front of us," Tsumugi agreed with her, then grabbed her hand and walked toward the door out of Maki's lab, "Come on, then."

"Right," Kaede agreed, following Tsumugi out of the room. After leaving the room, the three who had been investigating made their way back downstairs, to find that Rantaro seemed to be putting the final coat of primer on while Angie and Ouma had given up on painting the wall to splatter paint at each other from their brushes, which wasn't surprising at all.

"Oh, hey!" Rantaro greeted the others as they arrived back, then gave a sheepish smile as he gestured to the pair who were having a paint fight, "Ouma is bringing out a certain side to Angie that I've seen before, but I don't think that you actually have."

"Oh, oh, time out!" Angie exclaimed, then dropped her paintbrush in the ground as she waved both hands in the direction of the new arrivals, "Hello! How did investigating Maki's lab go?"

"It was weird," Kaede said, "The trees have been all cut up, and the pool was probably replaced with something because it killed all the grass around it. So I guess that's progress, don't know what towards though."

Angie pressed her hands to her cheeks, "That's weird! I was in Maki's lab two days ago and there definitely wasn't anything like that then! I bet Monokuma did it to try and make us more sad now that we remember being friends with Maki before..."

"It didn't seem like Monokuma's work," Miu said, "But I guess we can't make that assumption until we check the other vacant labs. If some of the others are also vandalized, then you might be onto something."

"It is super weird, though," Angie said, "But, like, I know that you'll figure it out! Anyway, let's go get more paint and brushes so that we can start working on this awesome mural."

"Good plan," Tsumugi said, following Angie to the lab as Rantaro stayed behind to finish up the last bits of primer needed.


	188. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Mural)

After fetching the paints and returning to the wall, everybody got to work on painting. Of the six of them left and participating, it seemed that Tsumugi and Miu were the only ones with any degree of artistic talent to their names. Miu probably needed to decorate homes, cakes, and similar things in her tenure as the Ultimate Maid, and Tsumugi just had a bit of natural talent which gave her scientific drafting and sketches a little extra quality.

The rest of them could hardly draw a thing, but somehow in the process of creating this mural, that lack of talent seemed to evaporate into the air. What they created working together was far from a masterpiece, and it would never pass the skepticism of any critic, but it was good enough for them that what they created actually resembled the goal of portraying their fallen friends in any capacity. And all of them were smiling. It might _not_ have been a masterpiece, but it was beautiful. It was a good luck charm for them. It was their friends, watching over them. Watching as they solved the mysteries of the Academy.

"It's perfect," Angie said, clasping her hands in front of herself as she looked at the mural, "Saihara really would be proud of us... Kokichi, this was a good idea."

"I thought it would be," Kokichi said, scratching some primer off his cheek from his earlier paint fight with Angie, "You know, it had to be this perfect. Because we all worked together. Because Shuichi would have done the same thing if he was still here. We had to carry on his memory."

"If you do something in somebody's name, then doesn't it have to work out?" Kaede offered, "If your intentions really are pure, then the memory of them, all that they loved and stood for has to shine through. It's not hard to understand somebody, if you take the time to understand what sort of things they're passionate about."

"Right..." Tsumugi agreed, nodding as she crossed her arms over her chest, still staring at the mural. The smile of that painted Kirumi seemed as if it would cut right through her soul if she looked for too long, but she couldn't tear her eyes away.

"Iruma," Kaede said, getting Miu's attention, "I'd like to continue investigating, and I think that you'd be able to help me with Idabashi's lab, too," She looked to the others, "And after that, I'll need Angie to help with Gokuhara's lab... Ouma?" At the question, Kokichi turned to look at her, "I'll need a lot of help from you, but let's wait a little while. By morning, I'm sure the others are going to want to get some rest. I'll just take a power nap, then you and I can get into some locked areas."

"Aye aye, captain," Kokichi said with a mock salute.

"Kaede, do you still have more pipettes and beakers?" Tsumugi asked, to which Kaede nodded, "In that case, Amami? Do you know proper handling of potentially hazardous substances?"

"Of course," Rantaro said.

"Could you do me a huge favor and take some of the substance from the coolant pool in Maki's lab, to mine?" She asked, then looked to Kaede again, "I might be able to learn something else about it, after all. It's best we look at every angle, and anyway, I need a bit of a break from investigating. Come get me when you're ready for Gokuhara's lab, I think you and Iruma can handle Idabashi's without me."

"That's fine with me!" Kaede said, wiping paint off her hands onto the hem of her skirt. She didn't really mind if this outfit got stained. She had plenty of copies of it, and she was kind of getting tired of it after a week and a half.

"Sounds like a plan," Miu said, pressing her hands together, "After I'm done with Idabashi's lab... Amami, Ouma? The three of us won't have any task at that point, so would you like to take some time to help me in the library? If there's anything to be found there, Akamatsu won't be able to, with how messy and disorganized it currently is. If we sort out the bookshelves properly, there could be something to be found there."

"I dunno how helpful I can be with that, but sure!" Kokichi agreed, "If nothing else, it's better than wandering around alone or something like that. I'll go try to get a headstart. Amami, you'll meet me once you get that sample for Shirogane?"

"Absolutely," Rantaro agreed, "Okay, so shall we all get started on our respective tasks? It's best if we get these things done, after all. The sooner we can find the truth, the better."

"Speaking of sooner," Kaede spoke up, pulling her Monopad out to check the time. She was shocked to see that they'd spent about two and a half hours with the mural, "It's already 0100."

"It's getting late," Miu said, "I think we'll probably get hit by how tired we are at around... five?"

"That works for me," Kaede said, "If I let the morning announcement wake me, then I'll have an hour-long nap. I think that should be enough!"

"In that case," Miu said, "Make it half past four. Naps taken in ninety minute intervals have a much better effect than any other duration. Every ninety minutes, you finish a sleep cycle. You'll feel much more rested for the extra half hour."

"Okay!" Kaede agreed, then started to walk away from the group. Miu followed her as she continued talking, "So, you helped out so much with figuring out what was wrong in Maki's lab, I thought that you'd be able to help me with Idabashi's too... Especially since he and Tojo were the ones to retrieve you for the Killing Game."

"Mm, that's right," Miu said, falling into step with Kaede and twirling some of her hair around a finger. She fidgeted an awful lot, Kaede noted. She'd noticed it before, but never made the connection of just how often Miu was messing with her hair, or clothing, or hands, "They were most capable of disguising themselves, to fit in with my environment."

"How do you feel," Kaede asked, quiet and choosing her words, "About them coming to get you?"

"I don't know," Miu said, "Maybe I could have escaped on my own, and I wouldn't have ended up in the Killing Game. Then again, maybe I couldn't have, and I would have become Despair. So at least I was able to meet all of you. At least I didn't die alone, or hurt anybody with my own hands. It's a rotten feeling in my heart, to watch people die who I've sworn to protect... But it could be worse. Besides, it isn't their fault. They were given the mission to retrieve me. Like Shinguji was given the mission to retrieve you."

"Yeah," Kaede said, "But if they'd failed, you wouldn't have ended up here. Don't you think you still could have ended up not becoming Despair?"

"Akamatsu..." Miu trailed off, stopping where she stood and staring down at the floor, halting in her fidgeting in the worst way, ripping the bit of hair she'd been twirling from her head, "If I had held out longer, he just would have found another way. Someone was _actively_ trying to turn me into Despair, you know. If I escaped, I still never could have gotten another job in my life. Once it turned out Despair knew I was the Ultimate Maid, my life was already over, okay? If I couldn't do what I was made to do, if I couldn't be anyone's Maid again, then I would have been Despair anyway."

"I'm sorry, Iruma," Kaede said, covering her mouth with one hand and looking away, "I didn't realize..."

"It's fine," Miu said, starting to walk again, "That's in the past, now? I mean, it's kind of comforting in a way... That even if it's a Killing Game, it's the best case scenario I could have possibly gotten. I want to find the truth, of course, but I'm at peace with the fact this happened to me now. I'd rather be here than keep remembering what came before. It's less awful. Sometimes that's the best you can hope for."


	189. Daily Life: Day Twelve (A Dead Man's Mystery)

Kaede and Miu arrived soon to Kiibo's lab. They'd both been inside it before, but not enough to really have memorized if there would be any small details different from the way that it had been before. Same impressive desk, same back wall of chemistry supplies. Had Kiibo found that strange, without the note explaining that it was for the purpose of creating a cure for Despair Fever? Or was chemistry actually a hobby of his?

Kaede didn't know that much. Kiibo never mentioned anything like that to her, before or during the Killing Game. She turned to Miu, "Did Idabashi ever mention to you, that chemistry was a hobby of his? Or anything like it?"

"Chemistry?" Miu asked, examining the stuff on the back wall, "No, not exactly, but this stuff... Could be used for something other than that, too, right? He had to have some sort of hobby. It might have been something a little bit strange, but there's no way that there wasn't something he did for fun. Um... Maybe he made slime!"

"Made slime?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow, "What, exactly..."

"Oh, right, you were cut off from the outside world for a while there, I forgot. Some substances combined make a slime that's fun or relaxing to touch, and it got extra popular recently. I guess it is a form of chemistry, but not a very complicated one. And practicing to be a politician was stressful too, so it wouldn't surprise me if he needed something relaxing like this!"

"I think that's kind of weird," Kaede admitted, "But you put it that way, it does make sense. I guess we wouldn't get the chance to find out, though... I was just thinking, it's a little odd that this stuff is in Idabashi's lab, but he never seemed surprised that it was."

"Well, he wouldn't have been," Miu said, "Even if he _didn't_ have any hobby that would use these supplies. Chances are, he just assumed that it would be needed for The Killing Game at some point, right?"

Kaede shook her head, "No, that's what's weird, I don't really think that would be the case. If he thought this stuff had anything to do with the Killing Game, then he might have entertained the thought that a cure for Despair Fever existed somehow. He obviously didn't, or he wouldn't have assumed that we were all infected by it."

"Mm, that's a good point," Miu agreed, then sat on the desk and cupped her chin in her palms, "It kind of makes me wonder... How much about the outside world could Idabashi have known? He didn't let on much at all before, and I was around him a lot! In spite of not taking sides, I did spend more time with you guys during the schism, after all... If he knew about Despair Fever, how did that influence the way he thought about the whole world? It's really curious to think about."

Kaede thought for a moment about that, then gave her offer, "It seemed like he knew about Despair as a fever, not about Ultimate Despair. It was a big part of his identity and talent, so the existence of Despair couldn't be scrubbed from his mind... He probably did know the world wasn't doing so hot, but thought it was Despair Fever, not anything else. So if he had us all killed, then he was, in effect, quarantining an outbreak..."

"But he didn't want to let us know the outside world was in such a sorry state, if we didn't need to know it?" Miu asked, swinging her feet a little, "That makes sense. It must have been hard for him, trying to think about our feelings and the fate of the world at the same time. I wish that he'd known about the time we spent together before..."

"But that's the point of a Killing Game, isn't it?" Kaede asked, "We couldn't remember that, because it just wouldn't work that way. It's a bigger tragedy to know it after the fact. With these memories, you know, there's no way we'd kill each other."

"If that was true," Miu asked, "Then why did we get the memories now? Why not after there were only five of us? Having the memories can't stop the game from concluding, if it could, then The Mastermind wouldn't have given us those lights to begin with."

"I couldn't answer that," Kaede said, sighing as she looked down, "And I didn't say that nothing will happen now. We're not the same people we were before. If we started off with the memories, sure, the Killing Game wouldn't happen. It doesn't make a difference now, though. Monokuma probably doesn't even need to give a motive, for something to happen now."

"I don't know if I'd go that far," Miu said, "Monokuma's motives are probably necessary in some way."

"They didn't end up being especially related to what happened," Kaede said, "And I mean, Chabashira and Gokuhara decided on their plan before Monokuma's motive was even provided."

"Still," Miu said, "Monokuma did produce a problem at least once. Idabashi probably wouldn't have thought that we were infected with Despair Fever if our secrets hadn't been aired like that. Though, that was still very strange for me... That Flashback Light ended up proving the lie was that I'd been betrothed before."

"I wonder if anybody else was under the wrong impression with their own motives," Kaede wondered, "If anything that was forgotten turned out to be the truth, like with you, and they just didn't realize which it was."

"That's a weird thing to think about," Miu noted, "I certainly hope that isn't the case. Now that we've used so many Flashback Lights, everyone should be able to trust their memories... Besides, if someone knew two of the truths, then what would it mean if a Flashback Light revealed something about what they thought was the lie? What does that mean for what they thought were truths?"

"Good point," Kaede said, sighing, "Still, I have to worry about it... I don't like the idea, of not really knowing the course my life's taken. It scares me."

"It would scare anyone," Miu assured her, "And that's why it's brave of you, to seek answers, you know."

"That's where you're wrong, Iruma," Kaede said, "It would be brave not to. I'm too terrified of not knowing, even if finding the truth means finding out just how much I didn't know."


	190. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Complicated Feelings)

"I know that you can do it, Akamatsu," Miu said, standing back up from where she'd been sitting on the desk, "And everyone will help you. I'll help you as much as I can, even though it's not much. I really can't do much, when it comes to investigating, but I'll do what I can."

"I know you will," Kaede said with an affirming nod, "You'd do anything that any of us asked you to, and I know it. Normally, I'd say something about that being unhealthy for you, but I know that if you didn't want to be everyone's maid, you wouldn't be. Not anymore, anyway."

"I'm much more self-assured than I expected myself to be!" Miu agreed, holding her hands in earnest fists close to her chest, "I'm not just helping everyone because I'm the Ultimate Maid, or because I think that it would somehow keep me safe, or anything like that. I really do want to see all of you succeed! But at the same time, I want you to succeed in a hopeful way, right? When we first got here, I even would have been fine with being killed, if it was to help you. But even before I got my memories, something changed."

"Maybe it was Maki," Kaede said, walking towards the door out of the lab, "After all, you stood up for her to Monokuma. Maybe that was when you started to become more self-assured, because it was still for the sake of somebody else, but you were acting on your own feelings."

"You might be right," Miu said with a small nod, "Truth be told, the feelings I have toward her, those aren't rooted in our past. Not like you and Shirogane, or anyone else. Maki and I didn't speak much, in the Secret Compound. Rather, I think... it was such cruel fate, that something like that happened, to a Master of mine. That I failed to protect her to such an extent destroyed me, at that time. Maybe I didn't really fall in love with her, and I was heartbroken at my own failure. But I do love her, looking back, now that I've been recovering. I love her. I don't know in what way, but maybe if we find her backup, I can find out what it means then."

"Feelings are complicated," Kaede noted, turning back to look at Miu again, "I had no idea why I loved Tsumugi, before the memories. And I really had no idea why I'd still love her after she killed somebody. It's for the better, I wasn't investigating in this last case. I was caught up in my own head. Why do I love her? Why do I love a murderer? Why do I hate someone I love, at the same time? Why do I love her enough that every time I try to tell her I hate her too, I apologize? I couldn't think about a case then."

"And now?" Miu asked, "You don't feel that way anymore?"

"I love her because she's Tsumugi," Kaede said, confirming with a nod, "And I hate her because she's Tsumugi. And I told her as much. She has a chance to improve. If she doesn't, then I'll probably stop loving her. Tsumugi is a good thing and a bad thing all at once, and those sorts of things exist in this world. And I know how to feel about them now. I can feel both ways at once, for a little while longer."

"As long as you work it out eventually, I think that's fine," Miu said, reaching out and pressing her hand against Kaede's arm, "I trust that you know what's best for yourself and for the people around you. At least, right now, in this moment... I can't imagine you failing at all. You're beyond that."

"Normally, I'd say something like, you're putting too much faith in me, or I'm not perfect, but," Kaede smiled in Miu's direction, "I think, right now in this moment, you're right. I can't afford to fail at anything anymore. I'll find the truth. And I'll survive. And I'll keep myself and my emotions safe... I can do all of that. I know that I can, and I know that I will. And I still have growing to do someday, but right now, all of my challenges are within my reach."

"That's right!" Miu proclaimed, "You're never done growing... But you're the best Akamatsu that you can be, right now. I believe in that."

"Let's head back downstairs," Kaede said, "I think that we've found everything that we'd find in Idabashi's lab. And I understand better now, how he felt. The conflict he had to be feeling, between what he thought he knew to be right and what we would likely perceive as wrong... It's easy to understand how he came to his decision, even if it's not easy to feel the same way."

"That's true," Miu said, "In any case. I'll join the others in the library, while you fetch Yonaga and Shirogane, right? That was the plan?"

"That's right," Kaede agreed, "Could you come find me at four-thirty, in case I lose track of the time? After the second case, I can't say that I completely trust the clocks around the school, and it's a pain to check my Monopad over and over."

"I completely understand, of course I'll do that," Miu said with a nod, and the two of them split up once reaching the first floor. Miu to the basement, and Kaede to fetch Tsumugi from her lab.

And Angie, from... Wherever Angie ended up. That was something Kaede actually had no clue about. Angie had neglected to say. Nonetheless, that was something she'd figure out later, as she made her way to Tsumugi's lab for a few reasons. One was, of course, to retrieve Tsumugi in order to investigate Gonta's lab together.

The other was to see if Tsumugi had yet been able to discover anything about the mysterious substance in Maki's lab. Kaede's own tests would be done soon, too. Hopefully, one of them would be able to ascertain the nature of the coolant pool; The next question, were it not coolant as suspected, would be to figure out why the switch had been made.

Just another part of the puzzle Kaede was determined to solve.


	191. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Coolant Plus ???? Equals)

Kaede walked into Tsumugi's lab, noting that Monokuma had taken the vote to heart and unlocked the gate, though it didn't convert back to its original state. The hedges were still impenetrable, and there was still a bathroom there; Likely because, with Rantaro's stipulations, Tsumugi would still not be sleeping in her dorm. Her lab was still a prison in some ways, she was just... On parole.

Tsumugi looked up, then greeted Kaede, "Ah, Kaede! I did my tests on the fluid... It's definitely not coolant, not entirely anyway. It's some part coolant, but also something else at the same time. I'm not sure what that other part is, but I know what it's not. So something else was poured into the coolant, it wasn't replaced."

"That's good to know," Kaede said, "Were you able to separate any of the other substance from the coolant? If my tests don't yield any results, then being able to test a purer form of the stuff might give me more answers."

"Oh, yes, of course," Tsumugi said, turning back to her lab table, "Give me a moment, and I'll get you a beaker of it. No need to be so careful anymore, though."

"Why not?" Kaede asked.

"Well, whatever it is," Tsumugi shrugged, "It has a pretty bad effect on metal, especially aluminum and aluminum alloys, but it's only slightly caustic to organic matter. It'd burn a little to touch, but it won't do any permanent damage."

"That's good to know," Kaede said, but then frowned, "That's strange, though. That makes me doubt it's a poison from my lab... Though I don't know what else it could be. It seems almost like somebody was trying to keep Monokuma from going in that pool, but... What for?"

"You said there might have been something in the bottom," Tsumugi said, "You should probably wait until you get your own results to actually go looking through the pool, though. Just in case there's some more side effects from touching it in larger amounts or something that I wasn't able to figure out."

"Oh yeah, I'll be careful," Kaede assured her, "Actually, I might see if I can get something to soak it up from the pool safely... I don't think there's any cat litter in the warehouse, but maybe some flour would work."

"That's a good idea," Tsumugi said, "But for now, we're going up to Gokuhara's lab, right?"

"That's my plan," Kaede said, looking back over her shoulder, "But... I'm not sure where Angie went. I wanted her to help us, too."

"Why her for this lab?" Tsumugi asked, "I'm curious. You seem to have everything thought out."

Kaede shrugged with a bit of a chuckle, "Well, it's just that... I think that she could use it, punching some fake tree dummies. She's pretty stressed and angry about a lot of things lately."

"She didn't seem that way to me," Tsumugi said.

"That's because she's burying her feelings," Kaede said, "After all, she wants us to be happy. Can't do that if she's wearing her grudges on her sleeve. I bet that if we both just go and hit some tree-shaped punching bags for a while... The unspoken tension between us just has to dissolve! I can stop being angry at her, and she can stop being angry at me. Not at you, though. Just a little bit less angry at you."

"That's fair," Tsumugi said.

"We just have to find her first," Kaede noted, turning to leave Tsumugi's lab. Tsumugi followed right behind her, and they made their way back out into the courtyard, looking around. Angie approached from the direction of the shrine which hid the courtroom a few moments later, waving as she ran up.

"Kaede! Shirogane!" She called out, then put her hands on her knees, leaning over and catching her breath from running over, then straightened up and smiled, "Sorry I'm late! I just got caught up in a little something."

"What were you doing?" Tsumugi asked, "Kaede's taking care of the investigation now."

"Well, I know that, but we're all trying to help, right?" Angie asked, holding her hands behind her back, "I was trying to reason with the leader of the Monokumas... Don't worry about it. Kokichi will definitely bring you by that secret place later. I didn't get anything good out of it or anything, so I've got nothing to report."

"Okay," Kaede said, "But if Ouma _doesn't_ take me there, then I'll hold you to it. The leader of the Monokumas sounds like something I definitely need to see."

"Oh, definitely," Angie said, "But, you've got an order to these things going on, right? You'll be taking a nap after this lab, probably... And then we'll all go to sleep too, and when you wake up you'll investigate with Kokichi, yeah? So if he somehow overlooks that thing with Boss Monokuma, then sure, I'll help you once I'm awake again!"

"Thanks, Angie," Kaede said, "So, we're going to go to Gokuhara's lab, and we're going to fight with the tree-shaped sparring dummies!"

"Wait, really?" Angie asked, blinking in surprise, "I thought we were just going to investigate... I guess you're a little more fun than I thought, Kaede!"

"Hey, I'm not serious all the time or anything..." Kaede trailed off with a mock frown, "No fun allowed! We're only punching the sparring dummies as part of our investigation! Is that what you want me to say?"

"Oh, it's just as I thought," Angie joked back, "You really are the stoic detective, hunting down criminals with a hardboiled heart and utterly solemn demeanor. After all, your twin sister died, and ever since you've been cold as ice with no mercy toward any criminal- lest any other innocent end up in your position."

"You got me there, Angie," Kaede said, chuckling, "Anyway. I think it could be good for us, and besides. I have my reasons for wanting to partake in the labs, not just investigate them, wherever partaking is actually possible. There's something I need to understand, and this will help me understand it."

"Will you tell me what that thing is, before we sleep?" Tsumugi asked.

"Yes, I think I should be able to," Kaede said, clasping her hands in front of herself, "After all, there's only a few more labs to visit. Though, I'll probably need your help again when you wake up. After all, we won't get the chance to now, but we need to play a game of tennis too."

"Hey, hey," Angie said with a silly grin, "This may sound dumb, but you two, and me and Rantaro, why don't we play doubles?"

"I'm sure that's what Yumeno would have hoped for, if she lived longer," Kaede said, "So of course. That's a great idea."


	192. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Carry On Gonta)

Kaede, Tsumugi, and Angie arrived in Gonta's lab, and this was the first time that Kaede got a really good look at it. She hadn't exactly come in here much before, never having much reason to. She didn't want to spar with Gonta, and her emotions were a bit too low to give her any motivation to learn self-defense before her memories were returned to her. She was still recovering, but having a new goal helped as she worked though the dissonance she'd been feeling before. It made sense now, why she'd felt numb at the deaths she witnessed, an empty pit inside her soul being filled up with black ooze. In a world of Despair, she'd already lost enough for the pit to be torn open.

All that any more suffering could do was to fill it up. And Kaede was overflowing. Mourning her parents, mourning her friends, mourning Shuichi most, Kiibo almost as much- And Tenko now, too. A sludge of suffering filled her entire body and dripped from her mouth and ears and nose, and maybe if she'd only been able to cry like she thought she should, maybe it would have started to drain away. Instead, she had just one choice with all that ooze, that filth of despair. A choice that only an Ultimate could make. She couldn't get rid of it, but she could change it into hope. Still an oozing, dripping, sludge of hope. But hope.

Hope could never be worse than despair, and here, it motivated her to find the truth, to find some sort of cosmic justice for the people she'd lost and the people she could still lose, if she failed, if she didn't find what she was looking for. Maybe she'd need to deal with it some other way, actually rid herself of this infectious slime someday, but that was not today. She could use it to her advantage. She could succeed. She could beat The Killing Game, in as much as it could be beat when there were already nine people dead. Still, seven people alive.

The standard, the tradition was that a Killing Game couldn't be completed with more than five survivors, Kaede knew that much, but it was possible to break a standard. Even so, Kaede also knew that games of three or even just one survivor were plausible within a Killing Game. There was nothing in her memories to say that five was where it always had to end. It could be worse. Kaede couldn't allow that. Beyond anything else, Kaede could never allow that. She didn't want to be the last one standing.

She didn't want to be alone.

And as that thought terrified her, she knew she wouldn't wish it on anybody else either. She hit the sparring dummy.

Tsumugi would never go to space without anybody to bring.

Hit.

Miu would find someone else to serve, but she wouldn't be happy doing it anymore.

Hit.

Kokichi was already falling apart with people still there to support him.

Hit.

Rantaro always seemed to act in the service of others, would he even know what to do if left alone?

Hit.

Ryoma was dying anyway. As the last man standing, an entire generation of Failed Ultimates would be thoroughly extinct, and he'd blame himself for that.

Hit.

Angie didn't hear Atua anymore. She'd never been alone before in her life. It would be new, and devastating. Of course Kaede noticed. How could she not?

Hit.

It didn't matter what was waiting on the other side of the Killing Game. Didn't matter if they'd be greeted by people who'd care just as much, or if they'd just be tossed back into a world of despair. The fact of the matter was that, even if there were new friends waiting to be made two seconds later, none of them would be able to handle being the last one standing for even a single second. It was too much. That couldn't happen, not to anybody. Kaede couldn't let it happen. She knew that she could find the truth, but she was scared she wouldn't find it in time.

She couldn't help a yell escaping her as she clasped her hands and hit the sparring dummy with all of her strength. She was frustrated and she was scared, and she couldn't say a thing about it because only the confidence she felt would be of any use to anybody else. None of the rest. Still, she found the other two staring at her after that exercise in expression of emotion, so she gave a sheepish smile and defended herself, "Just trying to get my negative feelings out here instead of anywhere else, you know?"

"You can talk about them, you know," Angie said, "It's not as if anyone here has really hesitated to share their feelings before, anyway. At least, as far as I've seen!"

"Well, that's because of the company you keep," Tsumugi said, turning to Angie with a frown and furrowed brow, "They decided to be honest with you, probably, but nobody wants to depress the whole group! We've all got something we're keeping bottled up too much, even now. I'm sure you're no exception, Yonaga."

"That's for sure," Angie said, "My secrets have only been given to the most trustworthy, and even then, I only did it cause I have to. But still, Kaede! We're all friends here, right? So what's getting you down?"

Kaede hesitated a moment, then sighed and explained herself, "I know... That there are five or fewer survivors, when a Killing Game is said and done. There's definitely been only three at least once before. I know that I can find the truth, but I'm worried that I might not find it in time. Or that I might be killed before I can find it... And the thing is, if the mystery of the Killing Game itself remains unsolved, can't there just be one person left standing? And I don't mean The Mastermind either, I mean any one of us. If it were two people, and one was not The Mastermind, then it would stand to reason that the other is The Mastermind and would need to be killed. Leaving one person left alive."

"That won't happen, Kaede," Angie said, stepping towards her, "Trust me, it's all going to be okay! Atua says The Killing Game will end real soon, you know?"

"Does he now?" Kaede asked, but didn't press the matter. That wasn't important right now. Wasn't important _yet_. Arguments could, of course, be saved for the trial. Somehow, Kaede realized, everybody knew that the mystery of the Academy itself would also warrant a trial. Another small detail that had been returned in their memories, "Well, I hope he's right, then."


	193. Daily Life: Day Twelve (The Human Variable.)

"So, is this it for Gokuhara's lab, then?" Angie asked, moving on to another topic, "It's a bit past four anyway, so Kaede, you were planning to get a quick nap before the morning announcements, right?"

"That was the idea," Kaede said, then turned to Tsumugi, "Sorry, but since I really need the rest, I'll have to take that nap in my dorm."

"You know what?" Angie said, "Don't worry about it, if you sleep in the same dorm, Shirogane doesn't have to try and sleep through the sunlight in her lab or anything."

"But then she'll be left alone when I wake up and continue investigating," Kaede said.

"Don't worry about it," Angie waved her off, "I'll get Iruma to sleep on the couch in the same room or something instead. I don't know if anyone can sleep outside in the daylight that well..."

"Actually," Tsumugi said, "Don't bother, it would be more trouble than it's worth. I can sleep in the lab..."

"Well, I was thinking about it, and really, both places are equally unguarded. Plus, the point of locking you up is to keep you from reoffending! If everyone else is in dorms with locked doors, sleeping, then you don't get the chance anyway. Kokichi and Kaede can take care of themselves," Angie explained, "But, maybe I'll get a Monokuma to play sentry at your door, at least."

"A Monokuma?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow, "I knew there were other Monokumas in the outside world, but I thought there was just one in here."

"Nope!" Angie said, holding up a finger and smiling, "I found that out. There's lots of Monokumas, but they all have the same memories and personality and stuff. It's so Monokuma can show up fast wherever it's needed, and also so that we can't break a little rule on one end of the school to distract it from punishing a different, death penalty rule somewhere else."

"I hate to say it, but I guess that is good foresight," Kaede noted, sighing as she ran a hand back through her hair, "Jeeze, I'm complimenting the Mastermind now..."

"I don't think that's really a bad thing," Angie said, leaning forward, "I mean, maybe I'm mistaken, but don't detectives and criminals need to have some sort of respect for each other? Like, hey, we're not so different, you and me, now where'd you stash the diamonds?"

"Where'd you stash the diamonds is a completely different thing from why'd you make my friends kill each other," Kaede said, "But... I have to at least accept that it was good thinking, to have multiple Monokumas. This Killing Game is beyond horrible, but it's well put-together... I guess it would have to be, if it's the fifty-third annual one. They've got to be prepared for anything by now."

"I don't know about that," Tsumugi said, "After all, its participants are still human. We're an unpredictable lot."

"Even among Killing Games," Angie said, "This is far from perfect. There's always the human variable, after all! No form of prediction could ever, ever make anyone prepared for everything. I know that from being an oracle back home, you know? And I bet whatever the point of this Killing Game is... Something's probably gone wrong somewhere along the way."

"...How'd you come to that conclusion, Angie?" Kaede asked.

Angie shrugged, "Well, obviously, the human variable. And there's some really confusing humans here in this academy. I bet that whoever planned this whole thing wasn't counting on Idabashi _or_ Chabashira trying to get away with murder just to have the rest of us killed."

"That's a good point," Kaede said, "But I don't know if I'd consider that something going wrong in a Killing Game..."

"Is there something the matter with me using the phrase, something went wrong?" Angie asked, clicking her tongue, "Did you hear it somewhere else? Because I'm just drawing conclusions, but maybe I did overhear it somewhere without realizing... That happens all the time, you know."

"She's right," Tsumugi said, "The human brain absorbs more information at any given time than most realize, it's just impossible to recall that information consciously for most. That's what makes you Ultimately Talented, Kaede. You have a much broader stream of conscious memory, which also means you take in even more information that you don't realize."

"Well, when I heard that something went wrong, it was definitely completely conscious," Kaede said, "Monokuma spoke directly to me. It said that something has gone wrong and this Killing Game can no longer fulfill its purpose. So forgive me if hearing that from Angie is a bit unnerving."

"Well, I did speak with the leader of the Monokumas, you know," Angie said, "It was a long and frustrating conversation, it didn't cooperate with me at all. So maybe it would have mentioned something like that. I guess, maybe... It didn't want to listen to me because it thinks the game's already failed like that, huh?"

"What exactly were you trying to get the leader of the Monokumas to do, Angie?" Kaede asked, "You've got to tell me the truth, or else it's awful suspicious of you."

"Well, okay," Angie said, looking up at the ceiling with her hands clasped as she explained, "Don't tell him I told you this, but Kokichi's planning something. He wants to end the Killing Game, by getting our numbers down to five. Motherkuma did admit the game would end with five people. But I talked to him and convinced him to give me some time first. He won't do it yet. I have another twelve hours to find another way to end the game... If your investigation fails, that is. I have faith in you, sure, but not that much faith."

"I see..." Tsumugi said, "So you were trying to reason with the Monokumas' leader to let the game end with seven people?"

"Yeah," Angie said, "Or to lock Kokichi up in his lab, or something to keep him from doing something foolish. He deserves to live, after all. You know that, right? Kokichi deserves to live, and Rantaro, and Iruma too. I'd say Hoshi, but he's dying anyhow."

"What about us?" Kaede asked.

"You two?" Angie questioned, then shook her head, "No, probably not. Not compared to them, anyway. But I don't either. If two more people did need to die to end this... It should be me, or one of you, or Hoshi. Any combination of two from that pool, don't you think?"

"Angie-" Kaede took a step closer, only to freeze, staring at her. There was a smile on Angie's face, but it was beyond empty, and her eyes had the similar air of sucking away all the light in the room.

"I have some time left," Angie said, "Before Kokichi takes action to end The Killing Game. But not enough. And I want to ask you something, if it comes to that. If I have one hour left and I'm out of ideas. Whichever one of you has less to offer the outside world, please kill me."


	194. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Carry On Kiibo)

"No," Kaede answered immediately, "Absolutely not. Neither of us will do that."

"But don't you want to stop Kokichi?" Angie asked.

"Of course I do!" Kaede exclaimed, continuing her step forward from before to get in Angie's face, "But did it ever occur to you that I think _everyone_ here deserves to live, you included? And I'm not about to throw my life away just to kill you, either! Trust me, it's not going to come to that. Don't you dare go getting killed, Angie."

"If it's me or them," Angie said, taking a step back and bringing her hands up to her face, "Well, wouldn't you do the same as me, if you realized how much better they are than us?"

"It doesn't matter if they're better," Kaede said, "It's not us or them, it's all of us against the Mastermind."

"Come on," Angie said, "Wouldn't you rather I was dead, not Kokichi?"

"I'd rather nobody else dies!" Kaede protested, then turned away from Angie and took a few deep breaths, trying to compose herself before she spoke again in stilted passage, "Angie. I'll do it, I swear. I'll find the truth but I'll need all the time we have left. Please, don't do anything. If Kokichi does anything... That's an equivalent failure, in my eyes. Not a bigger one. Give me twelve, not eleven."

"That's not a promise I can make, Kaede," Angie said, taking a few steps away, "I would really like to trade my life for somebody else's."

"...Tsumugi," Kaede mumbled, holding her arms around herself, "Please go back to my dorm. I'll be there soon."

"Kaede-" Tsumugi started, holding a hand out toward Kaede's shoulder, but then sighed and gave a slow nod before turning and leaving the room, leaving Kaede and Angie alone. Kaede knew the reason behind that hesitation. Tsumugi didn't know what Kaede might do. But Kaede did. And Kaede wouldn't kill Angie, even if she _begged_.

"Angie," Kaede said, taking a step closer now that Tsumugi was gone, "I know."

"You know? What do you know, Kaede?" Angie asked, stepping away from her again with her arms behind her back, and an expression that almost seemed a little scared behind the meaningless mock innocence.

"I know that you don't hear Atua anymore," Kaede pressed, keeping the distance equal between them even as Angie subtly tried to run, "And that you're too faithful to lie about that convincingly. That's why you didn't say he told you that Chabashira was a suspect. Why you admitted you were lying. You're just hiding behind him for little things. Like saying that Chabashira deserved to die, or that the Killing Game will end soon."

"Chabashira did deserve to die," Angie said, but it was as a statement, not vindictive at all, "Because she wanted to. Of anything that she could have been given, she wanted death and forgiveness. We couldn't give her forgiveness. So she deserved to at least have death."

"And you think you deserve death too?" Kaede asked, "Because you want to die? What have you ever done to deserve having your wants fulfilled, if that's the way you're thinking of it?"

"I don't _want_ to die," Angie said, "It's just that everybody else deserves to live more than I do. What I want is to help somebody else live. If the only way for me to do that is to die, then that's fine, isn't it? That's the way Kokichi's thinking. And without Atua, I don't know what to do anymore. I don't have any guidance. Kokichi deserves to live much more than I do, though. I know that much."

"I don't think so, though," Kaede said, "I think that we all deserve to live. And none of us deserved to die. If I can make it so that nobody else dies, then that's success."

"That's a tough standard to hold yourself to," Angie said, "I might not remember everything about Killing Games, but I know they don't end with more than five people left alive."

"Then I'll change that," Kaede said, "I'll set a new record. Just you watch."

Angie hesitated, then nodded, "I guess if any Ultimate Detective was going to do that, it would be you, huh?"

"Of course," Kaede said, "I'm a broken Detective in a broken game. So I'll break it even more. You don't have to worry, Angie. I'll do it for you. I will do what Idabashi promised, I'll take everybody's worries onto my own shoulders and absolve them. It's the least I can do for him, to take care of everybody like he wanted."

"Okay," Angie said, then crossed her arms over her chest, "Twenty five minutes, till you need to go to sleep to get a restful nap. You should get going."

"Right," Kaede said, starting to walk towards the door, only for it to open and Miu to step in, "Ah, Iruma!"

"I came to remind you of the time," Miu said with a smile, then looked to Angie, "Hello, Yonaga! You should be getting some rest soon too, you know. Everybody needs sleep to be at their peak performance both mentally and physically!"

"Right, thank you Iruma," Angie said, immediately retrieving her ability to put on a happy-go-lucky act, practically flouncing to the door, "Kaede and I were just having a meaningful heart to heart about just how much we loved Gokuhara."

"Oh, lovely," Miu said, holding the door open as they both left, then trailed behind them as they started to walk toward the dorms, "Anyway... Find anything?"

"No," Kaede said, "But trust me, I'm working on it. Just a little longer, and I'll have a working theory."

"Good to hear," Miu said, "A working theory on what part of it, though?"

"The real reason why we're the ones here," Kaede said, "And hopefully, that can give way to something more."

"Isn't it just because we're Failed Ultimates?" Miu asked.

"Technically, yes, but if you think about it, that doesn't make sense completely," Kaede said, "And I'm trying to figure out what's missing. The pin that makes it all make sense, because it doesn't right now. We were failed, sure, but at least some of us had another chance, if the people sent to retrieve us just rescued us instead and helped us move forward. There has to be a bigger reason why they picked _us_. Why they picked Failed Ultimates, not anyone else."

"And that's what you'll find?" Miu asked.

"That and everything else that's still missing," Kaede confirmed, "It's not a lot. It's just a few important small things. I'm sure of it. You won't have to wait very long."


	195. Daily Life: Day Twelve (A Brief Rest)

When Kaede arrived in her dorm, she found that Tsumugi had changed into pajamas, but was waiting for her. She closed the door behind herself, then glanced at the clock. She had a bit more time, so she sat down next to Tsumugi, "I told you that I'd let you know my theory, before we went to sleep."

"Yeah, you did," Tsumugi said with a nod, "So what is it?"

"Well," Kaede said, "I had this idea, and I'm pretty sure of it now. We were picked as Failed Ultimates... And the Mastermind is said to be Ultimate Judgement. Keeping that in mind, I'll conclude that the reason we're here is because we're being tested. A second chance to become regular Ultimates again. That doesn't make much sense, though, right?"

"Right..." Tsumugi said, "But then, you would figure out how it could make sense, yeah?"

"The Future Foundation wouldn't have monitored us so closely and not attacked the despairs we met, and especially with the memories we got of Idabashi, it doesn't seem like they were directly responsible. The Ultimate Initiative would probably prefer if we remained in the world, and would have us rescued from our failing situations and released to keep doing our work as Ultimates. Ultimate Despair, too, doesn't make sense. Ultimate Despair wouldn't use Failed Ultimates, they'd use whichever regular ones they could track down, and if it were Ultimate Despair, Idabashi and Tojo wouldn't have needed to disguise themselves to retrieve Iruma from a Despairing place," Kaede explained.

"So you're saying there's another large organization that's involved?" Tsumugi asked.

"There must be," Kaede said, "Some other organization that has some reason to put us through a Killing Game. If it were regular Ultimates, not failed ones, then of course it would be Ultimate Despair... But there are too many things which point to it being something else, and not them at all."

"I don't know anything about another organization, though," Tsumugi said, "Nothing in my memories at all... It's kind of like, in all my memories of the Secret Compound, and being retrieved, nobody said anything about why the game was happening or who was in charge of it."

"Of course not," Kaede said, "The Flashback Lights can omit things, obviously. I bet that even if The Mastermind wanted to return that memory to us, the lights would have to be tampered with to do it. After all, I get the feeling... Maybe we're supposed to think somebody different is behind this. Like Ultimate Despair, probably. But something went wrong."

"If something went wrong and we can't believe it's Ultimate Despair anymore, that's why we remembered as much as we did?" Tsumugi questioned, "Even so, it seems like we have to finish this Killing Game no matter how much goes wrong with it."

"It does seem that way, doesn't it?" Kaede asked, then took a few deep breaths and stood back up, wandering over to her closet to change into pajamas. She was too exhausted to care about privacy, and besides, it was just Tsumugi, "But maybe there's still a way to end it early, right? I'm talking about finding the real truth."

"The real truth?" Tsumugi asked for clarification.

"That's right," Kaede answered, "Monokuma said that there's truth to be found in this academy, but that it's not a truth for this Killing Game. That the truth that can be found here is only true in a Killing Game which hasn't failed... And I think that's truth which leads us to Ultimate Despair. Even so, there's no such thing as a perfect mystery. The real truth can be found here too, thanks to those Flashback Lights."

"Right, that makes sense," Tsumugi said, "Whoever's actually responsible left their metaphorical fingerprints here somehow... Without those memories, we'd just never be suspecting that it could be anything but Ultimate Despair. Without those memories, and Hoshi's Survivor Perk. Do you think that whoever gave him that ever expected that he'd end up letting us in on the fact that the Mastermind is called Ultimate Judgment?"

"Probably not," Tsumugi said, "Then again, maybe that fact was just supposed to be part of the lie. Like they would be the Ultimate Despairing Judgment, when all is said and done? It's possible in that situation, that there would have been a fake Mastermind too, now that I think about it. Nothing proves that it actually needs to be someone among us."

"Maybe," Kaede said, "But I do know that I need to get a little bit of rest before I keep investigating. I'll probably find a lot of new information, with Ouma."

"Yeah, I think so too," Tsumugi said, "But will you be safe with him?"

"I don't see why I wouldn't be. I know he'll keep his word about the time limit," Kaede said as she returned to the bed, climbing in on the opposite side from where Tsumugi was sitting, "I won't bring it up to him, though. I don't know what's going through his head... He gave the time limit to Angie, after all. If I reveal that she told me about it, then he might change his mind. It might have been meant to be a secret challenge, and she broke the rules by letting me know about it."

"Hm... Well, just be careful," Tsumugi said, "If Ouma says that he's planning to end the Killing Game, who knows what he'll do? He might kill you-"

"He won't," Kaede said, shaking her head and pulling the blanket up over herself, "If anything, he'll do exactly what Angie did. He'll ask me to kill him. Because that's the thing, now, Tsumugi. All of us that are left would rather die than commit a murder, some of us would want to die over a lot of things. That's why I think we can get through this without anybody else dying."

"And if someone is murdered after all?" Tsumugi asked.

Kaede shrugged, closing her eyes, "I'll burn that bridge when I get to it, Tsumugi. I'll of course, consider everyone a suspect, no matter what I think right now. If I think nobody is capable of murder, then someone is murdered, then for as long as the trial goes on, the truth is that everybody is capable of murder."

"I guess that's one way to look at it," Tsumugi said as she lay down as well, switching off the light. Exhaustion was a powerful force, but she was able to say one more thing before they both fell asleep, "Just be safe. I love you."


	196. Daily Life: Day Twelve  (Motherkuma)

"Good morning everybody! I'd say it's time to wake up, but I guess that I'll be nice and say that you can sleep in. Sweet dreams!" Monokuma's brief morning announcement roused Kaede, and she sat up despite everything in her wishing she could just stay in bed. She was tired, but once she stood up, she did feel more refreshed than she would expect after a short nap. Miu's theory that ninety minutes would leave her rested seemed to be correct.

Kaede glanced at Tsumugi, then got dressed quickly and stepped out into the lobby of the dorm. Stationed right next to the door to her right was a Monokuma, who did nothing but give her a short nod in what might actually be respect.

Beyond the Monokuma, Kokichi was standing in the middle of the lobby, and turned to greet her with a wave and another one of those terrible smiles. Between Kokichi and Angie, Kaede was seeing a lot of those lately. She'd really prefer that they just showed their emotions, rather than plastering on smiles that went beyond unsettling. Was it a defense mechanism, did they think they were being polite?

"Morning, Ouma," Kaede said as she approached him, crossing her arms as she walked. It was chilly in the early morning, she realized. The heat must turn off overnight, and she was just being too active to notice any earlier.

"Morning!" He returned, then started to walk towards the door out of the dorms, "We had better get started, you know. We have lots to do, secrets to uncover and places to break into, you know? So, it's up to you where we should get started."

"I'll want to take a look at Tojo's lab," Kaede said, "I'm assuming that you do know where it is. But first, there's a few other things. I want to see the secret room, and I want to check my lab, as well. To find out what was added to the coolant pool in Maki's lab. Oh, and did you make progress on the library?"

"I did better than make progress, the three of us got it almost totally cleaned up. And I found something, too!" Kokichi said, lifting his hand to his chin, tapping at it with one finger, "Oh, but the secret room? Who told you about such a thing, hm? I'll show it to you of course..."

"Angie did," Kaede said, "She said she had a conversation there, with the Leader of the Monokumas. That seems important."

"I dunno if I'd call it a leader," Kokichi laughed a bit, "But sure, you can meet it."

Kaede nodded as she followed Kokichi, surprised that he was leading her towards the Shrine, and brought up something else she forgot she'd wanted to ask earlier, "Can you also get me into the courtroom?"

"Huh? Yeah, I can," Kokichi said, "That's an easy one! Why do you wanna go there, though?"

"It's only fair that I investigate every corner of this academy, you know?" She offered, "There might be something important down there. We never really had the chance or reason to investigate it before."

"Hm, that seems like a waste for you to do personally, though," Kokichi noted, "Why not let me handle it after the others wake up and you move on to something else? After all, don't you want to end the Killing Game as quickly as possible?"

"Of course I do," Kaede said, "You think you can handle that room yourself?"

"I can scout it out, at least," Kokichi said with a shrug, "If I find anything there that's out of my ballpark, of course, I'll let you know. A good detective needs a partner though, right? And then the rest of the precinct, backing her up. So if Shirogane's your partner, think of me as one of the beat cops who can do the busywork while you handle the specialty stuff!"

"Well, okay," Kaede said, then watched as Kokichi crouched down and located that one specific tile which would make the stairs appear. She wasn't all that surprised when they did, given that she _was_ being led to a secret room. Once the stairs were there, she made her way down them, looking around as she found herself in a small room.

She squinted around at it, trying to look at anything but the giant Monokuma head in the middle of the room. It was distracting, and if she looked straight at it, she might miss something else about the room. Kokichi patiently waited for her at the base of the stairs. Once Kaede was certain she wasn't missing anything, she turned to the head and addressed it, "Hello, Monokuma."

"Actually, I prefer Motherkuma," The head spoke back to her with a slight chuckle, "After all, I'm not really a Monokuma myself! I'm the sentient machine which creates new Monokumas!"

"Why do you need to create new Monokumas?" Kaede asked.

"In case a Monokuma dies," Motherkuma said, "Or you idiots destroy one, which you'd be punished for. There's also the possibility of certain motives producing an army of Monokumas to attack and kill you all! Not that any of those are being used in _this_ Killing Game, but it's always possible."

"That's unsettling," Kaede said, "But I'm glad to hear it's not happening here. That sounds like a sort of drastic, last resort measure. Anyway, Motherkuma. What can you tell me about The Killing Game?"

"I can only answer specific questions," Motherkuma said, "And I probably can't answer all of them. I don't have the capacity to lie outright, however. A question which I am not allowed to answer will simply be answered in a similar way to this answer I am currently giving you."

"I understand," Kaede said, "But I'll be asking questions that I don't expect you're allowed to answer anyway. Who is The Mastermind?"

"The Mastermind is Ultimate Judgment," Motherkuma noted, "Recently reinstated as Mastermind."

"Why was Ultimate Judgment reinstated?" Kaede asked, "And why did they need to be reinstated in the first place, how did they lose the title?"

"The Killing Game broke, and Ultimate Judgment was given the blame for what went wrong. The reinstatement has occurred because Ultimate Judgment had a better idea for how to salvage more from this Killing Game than a higher power could," Motherkuma answered, "I will follow whoever can best achieve my prime directive."

"And what exactly are you trying to salvage? What's your prime directive?" Kaede pressed the machine, surprised that, although the answers were dodging her real questions, she was getting more information than expected.

"My prime directive, as Motherkuma, is to facilitate the act of the Monokumas in achieving the goal of the Killing Game, whatever that may be. Given the first goal failed, the current goal is to salvage as much as possible. As for what we're trying to salvage..." Motherkuma's voice dropped with that, sounding softer, less abrasive. It was offputting, and much too similar to the way that Monokuma had told Kaede the game had failed in the first place, "How peculiar. It seems that the answer to that question is... to save your souls?"


	197. Daily Life: Day Twelve (What Isn't The Purpose Of A Killing Game)

"Save our souls?" Kaede asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Conjecture is actually within the scope of my programming," Motherkuma said, "And I can only assume the meaning of that directive is regarding the fact that a Killing Game can strip its participants of all happiness and humanity. That's happened before, despite being in direct opposition to the purpose of a Killing Game. Supposing, then, that the directive means to prevent such a thing from happening. I do not need to comprehend the meaning of the directive, though. All I need to comprehend is that The Mastermind knows how to achieve it, and trust that they will accomplish it."

"What purpose is the loss of humanity in opposition to?" Kaede asked, pressing a hand against the glass that Motherkuma was inside. She kept her voice level, unsure if Motherkuma would have the same personality as the other Monokumas. If she acted too much like she cared about the answer, then it might refuse to answer just to mess with her.

Motherkuma hesitated a moment, then answered, "There are many things. A loss of humanity doesn't help a Killing Game. It isn't interesting to watch the mindless turn on each other. It doesn't serve _any_ purpose to break somebody's mind completely unless all you want is a worthless minion to control. No matter what the purpose of a Killing Game is, it is not to create worthless minions. That's the only answer I can give you."

"Thank you, Motherkuma," Kaede said, "You've already given me more than I could have hoped for. Maybe you're not so bad after all."

"Of course I'm not. I, and all the Monokumas I create, would love to be your friends. Unfortunately, our terrible personalities and duty to carry out the Killing Game tend to get in the way of that," Motherkuma noted.

"That's a good way to not make any friends, yeah," Kaede agreed, then turned to Kokichi, "Ouma, do you have anything to ask?"

"No," He said, shaking his head, "I told you, I already know everything that I need to know. In this investigation, all I can do is be an assistant to you. An intern and a lockpick, and that's all I can really serve as."

"Ouma already found this place a long time ago," Motherkuma said, "And asked a lot of questions, too. However, I believe that by the time he realized I was capable of answering questions, he had already determined Ultimate Judgment's identity."

"That's true," Kokichi said, "I was able to determine, beyond any doubt, that person's identity... Without any additional investigation of places like this. If I could do it in that manner, Akamatsu, I'm sure that you can figure it out with all of this on your side! After all, I'm just a magician, and you're the Ultimate Detective."

"I know that I can do it," Kaede said, turning to him and narrowing her eyes, "I just hope that I can do it quickly."

"Heh, you're really curious about this!" Kokichi said, bringing a hand up to scratch the back of his neck with a grin, "Hey, how about this? If you can figure out the _reason_ that Ultimate Judgment is called that, then I'll let you in on who it is."

"You've got yourself a deal," Kaede said with a nod. After all, her intention was to find that out anyway. If he'd give up the information if she succeeded in investigating one aspect of the academy, then that was one more thing she didn't need to worry about.

"Thanks much," Kokichi said, giving her a mock bow then standing up straight again and nodding his head to the stairs at his side, "Don't you think that we're done here? We should check your lab, then Tojo's, then the library."

"You're right," Kaede agreed, then walked over towards the stairs, stopping on the first step and looking back to Motherkuma, "Hey, thanks again. Good luck, saving our souls or whatever."

"It's not a matter of luck," Motherkuma said, "But thank you. I'll be sure to succeed, or at the very least, I'll be sure to ensure that Ultimate Judgment does."

Kaede didn't respond to that again, walking up the stairs to find herself back inside the shrine. She took a few deep breaths, then leaned against the wall to be out of the way while Kokichi climbed up after her. She was still very tired, but her mind was sharp, not at all foggy.

It was a matter of grave importance, after all. The human body had many terrible limitations, but it had a way of losing those limitations when the situation called for it. A mother with a child trapped beneath a car could gain the strength to lift it through the sheer willpower and necessity, and a detective who was running on ninety minutes of sleep could continue thinking in the same manner as someone who'd got a proper ten hours when the lives of her friends relied on her intellect.

Kaede wondered if Kokichi's ability to still be functioning now, on what she could only call a negative number of sleeping hours, was a matter of equal importance, spread out over the past few days. He was likely used to the lack of sleep to begin with, and combining that with the fact that any misstep at a time like this could lead to the destruction of all he still had dear, it was no surprise that he could still investigate, if not behave, like a rested person.

"So, we'll find out what's up with that coolant, right?" Kokichi offered, leading the way out of the shrine to make his way toward Kaede's lab.

"Hopefully," Kaede said, "I'm kind of banking on that being important, so if I can't figure out what the problem is, I don't know what I'll do next. Tsumugi has a theory that someone's trying to hide something in the bottom of that pool."

"That's probably true," Kokichi said, "I'll explain why, when I show you what I found in the library, okay?"

"Okay," Kaede said with a nod, then the two of them made their way to her lab in relative silence. Upon arriving, Kaede checked all of the tests without a word, until she was finished checking and picked up a bottle from her cabinet, explaining out loud, "It's this. This poison was added to the coolant, just a few drops. It's a contact poison, as I expected. It has a minor impact on organic matter, but a large one on certain metals. It's exactly like Tsumugi said, which means... That pool's not hiding something from us. It's hiding something from Monokuma."


	198. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Keys and Lights)

"Hiding something from Monokuma?" Kokichi asked, frowning as he took the bottle from Kaede and read the label himself, "Well, that's weird. If The Mastermind is working together with the Monokumas again, then who would have done this? What exactly is being hidden?"

"There's only one way to find out," Kaede said, "It's to get that thing from the pool... We can do that later, though. We'll need to look in the warehouse for something which can soak it up. I definitely don't want to get minor chemical burns unless I absolutely have to, you know?"

"Completely understandable," Kokichi said, "Those can't be pleasant."

"Well, I guess that's it for what I needed in my lab..." Kaede trailed off, looking around one more time, and frowned as something did catch her eye which was out of the ordinary. In the empty space on her bookshelf, as she'd moved so many of the books to Tsumugi's lab, there was something strange sitting on the shelf. She approached it, picked the thing up, then held it in the light and mumbled, "It's another key..."

"Another key?" Kokichi asked, stepping over to look at it, "Huh, yeah, that sure is a key."

Kaede quickly checked her bag with her other hand, pulling out the one that she and Tsumugi had found earlier on the fifth floor. She held it next to the new key and couldn't help noticing that they were... Identical in every way. From the amount of rust to the shape of the key, there were no differences, "Two copies of a key to a door we don't even know about yet..."

"Maybe it's not two identical keys to the same door," Kokichi offered, "Maybe they're keys to a series of doors that can be opened in any order. Those kinds of things get used in tricks, sometimes. A bunch of doors with the same lock. Not about to explain how that makes a magic trick, though. I haven't used a trick like that on you guys yet, and nothing's impressive if you know ahead of time how it works."

"That's fine, the fact that it exists at all is plenty useful enough," Kaede said, "So somewhere in this Academy, there are multiple doors that can be opened in any order, but need a certain number of identical keys to do so?"

"Yes, that's what I would think," Kokichi agreed, "Just a whole bunch of identical keys to open... Something. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find it!"

"I didn't expect that we wouldn't," Kaede said, stepping back to the door of her lab, "Anyhow, we should move on. Tojo's lab would be next, wouldn't it? You know where it is?"

"Of course I know what it is. What do I look like to you, somebody who hasn't been using my extra eight waking hours for the power of good?" Kokichi questioned, chuckling, then wandered past Kaede out of her lab as he spoke, "The door to it just became visible, though. It's in the basement."

"Okay," Kaede said, following Kokichi back downstairs, "That makes it easy to check the library immediately after, then."

"Sure does," Kokichi said, flashing a thumbs-up out to the side so Kaede could see it in spite of being behind him, "Funny how that worked out, huh? If you'd asked to see Tojo's lab first, we would have stopped at the library then, by the way. As much as we're doomed to backtrack throughout the course of this investigation, that's one way that we don't have to!"

"Good point," Kaede agreed, and once they arrived in the basement, she could see the door which was pretty clearly Kirumi's. It had the same symbol on it as had been on the hairbow that she wore. Kaede remembered now that Kirumi explained it was from an anime called Fullmetal Alchemist, one of her personal favorites.

When Kirumi had decided to put everybody into cosplay, even, she dressed Kaede as Winry from that very show. She noted that whenever possible with hair color and texture, it was better to cosplay with natural hair than a wig, because it looked more authentic. She matched the characters to everybody's best features.

Well, that was what an Ultimate Cosplayer would be able to do, wasn't it? Not just to create the costumes or to wear them well, but also to determine exactly what costume a particular person could pull off best. There were plenty of cosplayers who started out in unflattering characters for one reason or another, Kaede was sure of it despite not being a part of that scene, and that was a learning process that Kirumi's talent could bypass.

Kaede reached out to the door for Kirumi's lab, pushing against it. It wasn't barred, simply seeming to be locked from the inside. More like Shuichi's lab that Korekiyo's, which she thought made sense. An Ultimate Assassin's lab would have to take a little more effort to break into if the one who actually knew how to use all the weaponry within was dead. Or just in general, given that even the 'understocked' version of Korekiyo's lab was quite menacing.

Kirumi's lab was exactly the way Kaede would have expected it to look, inside. There were mannequins, and entire rolls of fabric along the walls, not to mention a few clothing items and costumes already assembled. Nothing that actually matched a character, but items which could be modified to cut down on the amount of sewing required, or just costumes that seemed more for dressing up than acting the part of an existing character. Kaede assumed that those were the sort of costumes Kirumi used for such things as retrieving Miu.

"Hey, this is pretty cool," Kokichi noted as he looked around the whole lab," It doesn't seem incomplete at all, even though Tojo died a whole two trials ago now... You'd think Monokuma would have scrapped it immediately after she got killed, right?"

"You'd think," Kaede said, shuffling through the rack of generic costumes, "The fact that it's actually finished... Might mean that there's something important hidden in here."

"Something important, huh?" Kokichi asked, "That's possible... Why here, though?"

"Maybe because we never really got to know Tojo as an individual, during the Killing Game," Kaede noted, "All of my memories of who _she_ was as a person are from before, she was just attached to Idabashi this whole time. There could be something important we never got to know about her, like, she used her cosplay for infiltration missions all the time, not just once."

"That doesn't seem like that big a secret, you know," Kokichi said, "I bet it's something even bigger! Like, she learned some information that would totally depose an Ultimate Despair if it got out, or something~ I mean, it would be just so scandalous if certain people liked certain animes, wouldn't it?"

"You're too tired to say shit like that seriously, Ouma," Kaede said, rolling her eyes, then stopped as she grabbed one of the costumes. It was a fancy dress, probably the one that she'd used to retrieve Miu, and something was off about it. It felt heavier in Kaede's hand than it ought to, and on a whim, she shook it. There was a thud as something hit the floor, and the sound of it rolling.

Kaede had to say, she hadn't expected there to be any more Flashback Lights in closed-off labs.

But there it was, rolling away to tap the far wall and come to a stop beneath the rows of fabric.

"That's a surprise," Kokichi said, walking over to the light and picking it up, "Hey, Akamatsu. Let me test this thing first, to make sure that it's legitimate."

"Yeah, okay," Kaede said, then crossed her arms, "What was the false information that the other Flashback Light gave you, anyway, to make you think they're capable of that?"

"Simple," Kokichi said, "It told me who The Mastermind was, but it wasn't who I knew The Mastermind is. So that was a definite lie. I destroyed that light, because if anybody did pick it up and use it besides me, then there'd be a big problem."

"Who did the light say it was?" Kaede asked.

"Normally I wouldn't say, because that's one person who you'd know isn't The Mastermind, but the thing is, you're the only other person who would be able to determine that light was a lie," Kokichi said, "Because, Akamatsu, it said that The Mastermind is you."


	199. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Bitter Survival)

"Me?" Kaede asked, "No, that's impossible."

"I know it is, that's why I called it Fake News," Kokichi said, rolling his eye, "But the others don't know that, now do they? I know it couldn't possibly be you because I know who it truly is, and you know it couldn't possibly be you because you're you, and The Mastermind knows who they are so they would know it couldn't possibly be you. But that leaves four people who, had I not destroyed that thing, might have honestly gotten a memory of you agreeing to be Ultimate Judgment. To plan the motives, and executions, and everything."

"And the problem there is," Kaede noted, "That we'd like to think we know everybody else well enough that it wouldn't be a problem. That nobody here could do that, meaning that everybody could. With a fake memory, even Tsumugi could come under the impression that I was The Mastermind... Unless it was her, I guess."

"Now that's the way to think," Kokichi said, "Absolutely anybody could be responsible, as far as all of you know. So, if you'll excuse me, may I use this Flashback Light? Turn around and close your eyes so it only hits me."

"Yeah, of course," Kaede said, and covered her face with her hands for good measure.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now," Kokichi said, and Kaede turned back to look at him as he explained, "This doesn't seem fake to me. It's just some more details on the time we spent together in the Secret Compound... I got more specifics on one thing I used to remember in vague terms. I get the feeling this one might have more to it than that, but I couldn't say what. Up to you if you want to use it, might just be more depressing to get even more memories about good times with dead people."

"No, I'll use it," Kaede said, "I'd rather know everything that I can. I want to fill in the gaps... Absolutely. If there's something I can remember, I want to remember it. Especially when it comes to them. Maybe it would make me mourn them more, but I also have a duty as somebody who's survived this long, to carry on their memories. Nobody is truly gone until there's no one and nothing left to remember them."

"That's understandable," Kokichi said, "And I have to say, I agree with you, though I wouldn't consider myself the best person to trust with those sort of memories. You're much better for that kind of thing."

"Don't say that," Kaede snipped as she snatched the light from his hand, coming off a bit more aggressive than she intended. After dealing with Tsumugi for several days, and then Angie for several minutes, Kaede was really getting tired of her friends casually disregarding the importance of their own lives.

"I can say whatever I want," Kokichi said, "I mean, come on, you can't deny that you're a better person to carry on those memories! You can take that to mean whatever you want, you know. Nothing to get angry about. Maybe I mean that I don't expect to live much longer, or maybe I just mean that you're a detective with a really good brain!"

"...Sorry," Kaede mumbled, looking away and turning the Flashback Light over in her hands, "I'm just worried, you know? I don't like hearing my friends talk that way, and it keeps happening. Not to mention, before the Killing Game... and you know, Ouma? If you really think about it, every single case has been some sort of suicide."

"Huh?" Kokichi asked, then blinked through the confusion as he thought that through, speaking again under his breath, "Now that you mention it... That's uncanny. Shinguji, Momota, Idabashi, then Gokuhara and Chabashira both."\

"Right," Kaede said, "Momota specifically gave up his life so that Maki wouldn't have to kill someone else, then Idabashi and Chabashira both planned to kill themselves after getting the rest of us killed for getting The Blackened wrong..."

"Seems kind of weird, even knowing what the outside world is like, for a Killing Game to go this way, doesn't it?" Kokichi asked, "You'd think _somebody_ would end up killing in cold blood, or to accomplish something else. Instead, we've found ourselves in this position. Just a bunch of dead bodies that didn't care about living nearly as much as the rest of us hoped they'd live."

"Ouma-" Kaede started, reaching toward him, but he cut her off with a sharp tone.

"I know what you're thinking, Akamatsu. I know that you and everybody else don't want me dead, I know that you don't want anybody dead. But I don't want any of you dead either, you know?" Kokichi's tone softened as he continued, "I'm well aware that I'm just another person who values my life less than the people around me do. So stop worrying about me any more than you'd worry about anyone else here. Each and every one of us care less about ourselves than other people care about us, me no more so than any of you."

"I have to worry that it's more," Kaede said, doing her best to leave her conversation with Angie out of it, "You haven't gotten any rest, and you lost somebody who you really loved."

"We've all lost somebody who we really loved, looking back at our old memories," Kokichi said, "You lost Shuichi too. And I lost Tenko, and I lost Kaito, and I lost Himiko. I loved them a lot too, you know. And you also lost Shinguji. Idabashi too. Even if I remembered who I loved before the rest of you, doesn't mean I've suffered any more than any of you. I envy the dead who didn't need to remember. But I don't envy any of you, who've survived this long with me."

Kaede hesitated, then said all she could think of, "You're still not sleeping. That's something."

Kokichi shrugged, "I promise you, Akamatsu. That isn't new. That is absolutely nothing new. Worry about me when it's been a week and a half. Short of that, sleeplessness is no torture for me anymore."

"You've gone a week and a half before?" Kaede asked, her voice straining, "How did that...?"

"I was a coward," Kokichi said, "Too afraid back then. I know I might seem to be in bad shape, but I've been so much worse before. I'm recovering, believe it or not. The eye was just a relapse to the sort of shit I got up to before. Just a little more permanent. I'm going to be okay, if I get the chance to. Now will you just use that light? I don't want to talk about this any longer."

"Okay," Kaede said with a nod, then flipped the switch, and the world warped.


	200. Flashback: Compound Day One (A Gift Horse)

Before the Killing Game, in the Secret Compound, Kaede had recently arrived. There were only a few others who were already living there, and she got her own room, and she was shown around the place. It wasn't especially large, but the number of people who needed to live there could do so comfortably. The compound consisted of just one large building, a second floor composed of individual rooms and the first floor of common areas.

There weren't any windows, period, and just one exterior door. It led to a closed-in yard with a tall chain link fence, barbed wire at the top and translucent sheets of plastic on the outer perimeter. It would have felt like a prison, if not for the good company. This was to protect them from the outside world, from the Despairs who knew that they were Ultimates.

If any of them hadn't known before, they knew now. Kaede had been told that upon her arrival, information was released online that the current Ultimate Detective had been 'acquired' for the upcoming 53rd Annual Killing Game. Even so, she felt more bad for other Ultimates whose talents were exposed, or were obvious by public nature. They probably had to live in fear of being assassinated or captured for having their talents every day, and Kaede was terrified at the single attempt made on her life by the Ultimate Despairing Hacker. She knew that most of Ultimate Despair would rather turn Ultimates than kill them, but they clearly wouldn't hesitate to simply eliminate those who were strong in their convictions.

Being here didn't feel like being captured, though. Kaede knew that her other option at this point was basically just to die, and she wasn't fond of that at all. She didn't want to die in spite of the apparent year she'd spent in misery, she wanted the chance to live a little while longer. This compound was similar to a prison but didn't feel that way, for one strong reason. Kaede felt safer inside than she had her entire life; Because in this particular case, it would be counter-intuitive to let the Ultimates die on Death Row.

In spite of all that awaited her at the end of the tunnel being a Killing Game that she felt she was unlikely to make it through, she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. And in spite of that phrase originating with the foolish idea of accepting a gift with mystery behind its true nature, she was willing to overlook that foolishness here. Checking the age of a horse given to you through examination of his teeth was honestly a very smart thing to do if the one giving the gift has neglected to mention if it is a young, spry horse, or an elderly horse meant far more for companionship than doing any sort of work. Looking a gift horse in the mouth could be the only way to determine the proper way of caring for it.

As it applied here, Kaede was willing to overlook the fact that she had hardly assessed the offer at all prior to accepting it. Several months in a Secret Compound, safe from the outside world and with good company, was something she probably would have accepted even if the cost was even worse than participating in a Killing Game. To look this gift horse in the mouth would likely have been to demand answers of the reason Killing Games had existed her entire life, or something similar, at which point she could only imagine that the offer would have been rescinded. Just as a snooty gift-giver might rescind a horse if you were to check its mouth in front of them.

Kaede, as was her nature, didn't know for how long she sat on her bed, staring up at the ceiling and contemplating these things about the turn that her life had taken. She didn't take note of the time when she began to contemplate, given that she wasn't exactly planning on it, but she stood up and made her way out of the room.

She went downstairs, and found that Rantaro and Angie were sitting on a couch, both eating sandwiches. Angie greeted her first, "Oh, Akamatsu! You're awake!"

"I have been," Kaede said.

"We just assumed you were sleeping, since you didn't come out for a while after we showed you your room," Rantaro said, "Anyone would be exhausted after arriving here, after all."

"Actually, I feel more alive here than I have in years, probably," Kaede said, grabbing hold of an armchair and taking a seat across from the both of them, "I was just thinking about things. I like it here, though. It's safe, and bright, and even though we've only just met, I already consider everyone here to be my friends."

"I agree," Angie said, "And we'll just make more friends, as more people are saved... Even if we know we'll have to lose most of them, friends are nice to have, even for a little while."

"That's kind of a depressing way to look at it..." Rantaro said, "But technically, I do agree."

"You two were the first ones here, before Shinguji arrived, right? How long were you here alone?" Kaede asked.

"I was here for two weeks," Angie said, "Before Ms. S. took me along to retrieve Amami. I was totally alone, except for, you know, Atua. Lucky that the most pathetic one of us is also the one who can handle being friendless for a little while."

"After Angie helped retrieve me," Rantaro continued for her, "It was another three weeks. Neither of us helped to retrieve Shinguji, he just showed up and kind of keeps to himself... A week after he got here was when he was sent to get you, so I guess Ms. S. had some reason in her head to trust him to go get you on his own."

"Hmm," Kaede pressed a finger to her own cheek, and shrugged, "Well, I guess that maybe it was less that she trusted Shinguji, and more than she didn't want me seeing her, you know? After all, of the four of us, I've seen the most Killing Games because my sister used to watch them..."

"Ms. S. told us all about how your sister became Despair," Angie said, "So maybe she thinks that you'd recognize her from your sister's letters, or something? Didn't she still send a few after she ended up with the Despairs? I dunno what Ms. S.'s deal is, but it could be that, right?"

"Could be," Rantaro said with a nod, "I didn't meet her for very long, and to be honest, Angie, I was more focused on you than on her in the moment. You were the one who saved me, she was just kind of there."

Angie chuckled a bit, then glanced over to the stairs again and narrowed her eyes, "This is nice, but wouldn't it be nicer if everyone was here, hanging out together? The point of this place would be to make the most of the time we have left before it's our turn for the slaughter. It makes me sad that Shinguji isn't doing that..."

"Maybe he's doing that in his own way," Kaede said, climbing out of the armchair, "But, maybe not. I'll go talk to him and invite him downstairs."

"That's a good idea," Rantaro said, also standing up, "I'll make some more sandwiches, then. I'm sure you're both at least a little hungry."


	201. Flashback: Compound Day One (Korekiyo)

Kaede returned to the stairs and made her way up them, wandering down the upstairs hallway until she came across the door with Korekiyo's name etched into a plate a bit below the doorframe, right on the door itself. The other doors had spots on them for a plate to be affixed, but only a few of them had names so far. There was one that read 'Shuichi Saihara', and another that read 'Himiko Yumeno'.

Kaede wondered, since whoever "Ms. S." and her peers were clearly knew a lot about her own situation, if those were the names of Ultimates whose failure was inevitable, and soon for that matter. She didn't recognize either name, but she supposed that she wouldn't. She didn't know the names of any other Ultimates picked the same year as she was, actually. She was already cut off from the world at large by then, so she wouldn't even know about the Ultimates whose titles were known to the public.

While most were kept under the radar to avoid being targeted by Ultimate Despair, a select few names were always picked to be broadcast to the world. Another aspect of spreading Hope was to make sure that the common people knew that there were still Ultimates alive and well and fighting for them. Between thirty and forty Ultimates were picked each year, usually having been observed by The Initiative for a while, just waiting until they reached a High School age and became eligible to hold the title.

Kaede thought she remembered hearing that there were once also "Li'l Ultimates", but that sounded like it had to be before she was born. Despair didn't just crash into the world out of nowhere, and there was a time when giving out an Ultimate title wouldn't have been considered reckless endangerment of an innocent child. Not in Kaede's lifetime, though.

She knew the numbers of a Killing Game. Sixteen participants. That meant that every year, for the Annual Killing Game, sixteen Ultimates were gathered up. She guessed that they first tried for Failed Ultimates, then filled in any leftover gap with normal ones. That left between fourteen and twenty-four Ultimates who were _actually_ picked each year, since those sixteen were usually collected about a year and a half after selection as Ultimates, cutting the numbers.

Kaede didn't like that, now that she did the math. Between fourteen and twenty-four Ultimates a year may have seemed like a lot, but between falling into Despair, being killed _by_ Despair, or whatever else might happen, it was no surprise that few Hopeful Ultimates made it to adulthood.

She took a deep breath and decided to put it out of her mind as she reached out and knocked on Korekiyo's door. She waited a moment, then he opened it, immediately making eye contact which was just a little too intense. Like a cobra staring down its prey, but Kaede didn't flinch and simply spoke to him with just as much amity as ever, "Hi, Shinguji. Everyone's hanging out downstairs, why don't you join us?"

"...Join you?" Korekiyo asked, blinking slowly, and his gaze suddenly seemed less like a snake and more like a standoffish housecat, "You'd have somebody whose Ultimate Talent is to kill people, join you in simple chatter?"

"I mean, yeah?" Kaede said, "We're supposed to be making the most of the time we have before the Killing Game starts. As far as we're concerned in a place like this, the way to do that is to become friends with each other. I know that the memories will be erased, but surely, it's better to have these experiences and lose them than to never do it at all? Everyone should be able to have a nice time with friends."

"I do consider you a friend," Korekiyo said, "But I'm not so sure that the other two have any interest in spending time with me."

"They do, though," Kaede said, "I came to get you because Yonaga was saying that she wished everyone was there, not just three of us. Just because they don't know how to approach you doesn't mean they don't want to become friends with you, Shinguji! Of course they don't know how to talk to you, they were the first two Failed Ultimates, and they failed for 'personal reasons', not like how you and I failed for finding ourselves in an inescapable peril. They fell apart the quickest of any of us, so is it any surprise they don't know how to try and make friends?"

"I suppose you're right," Korekiyo said, looking away and scratching at his chin. Kaede noted that he was an astoundingly handsome young man, without the mask on, "The thing is, it's been a very long time since I last had any friends. How are multiple people who don't comprehend how to be friends, going to befriend each other?"

"I was worried about that too, but you talked sense into me, so stop being dumb about it now," Kaede said, reaching out and wrapping her hands around Korekiyo's wrist, "Just come downstairs, and it'll work out, I promise!"

"Well, if you _promise_ , then how am I to deny you?" Korekiyo chuckled, letting himself be dragged along. Kaede let go of his wrist when they reached the stairs, and he followed her the rest of the way back to that common room, where Rantaro had since set a plate full of several more sandwiches on the coffee table. Angie was eating a second one.

"I convinced him," Kaede informed them as she sat down in that same armchair again, then made a sweeping gesture toward another one, "Shinguji, sit down, relax!"

"...Of course," Korekiyo said, taking a seat then looking to Angie and Rantaro, "We've made formal introductions, yes, but I'm afraid that beyond your names and talents, I know nothing about either of you two. I'd like very much to get to know you, even if we will one day be enemies."

"Hey, don't say enemies," Angie said, pouting as she leaned her cheek in her palm, stuffing her current bite of sandwich into one cheek as well while she talked, "In The Killing Game, it's not like we're all enemies of each other. We can be friends, and also suspects. That's more like what it is. If you think everyone's your enemy just cause there's the chance they'll be driven to kill you, then you'll never survive long... "

"You're right. The paranoid ones always lose out, while everybody else bonds and form ties with each other," Korekiyo noted, "However, I suppose I am in some ways, doomed. Without Akamatsu's splendid pep talk, I would certainly not cease to be a loner."

"Aww, no," Angie whined, "Don't say _that_ either! I don't wanna think at all about who's gonna live or die until we're in the game. Cause for now, we're all living, for a bunch more months."

"That's true," Rantaro said, "I believe it would be in everybody's best interest if we considered this Compound to be an area free of unnecessary negativity. Speaking negatively about the past is fine, but the future... That's just an inevitability that we don't need to think about."

"I understand," Korekiyo said, "That's a good way to think about it. In that case, I'm quite curious about something which may sound a bit unpleasant to ask. I know you just said that negativity about our pasts is permitted, but I'd gladly hear about any fleeting positives of the times before we failed as Ultimates."


	202. Flashback: Compound Day One (Religion)

"Huh? Well, okay," Angie said, "I guess that makes sense. After all, everybody's got to have some positive memories... Truth be told, even though I never enjoyed practicing piano that much, playing the organ during Atua's services was always so fun. It was kind of like a performance, but not quite... Because the focus wasn't on me, the music was just a really important part of how to spread Atua's love."

"That sounds like a wonderful experience," Korekiyo said, "Being a part of that sort of thing, anyhow. Myself, I don't practice any religion these days, but I'm sure that those who heard your music were entirely taken over with whatever joys your God can offer."

"These days?" Angie asked, tilting her head, "Ah, were you religious before, Shinguji?"

"I was, but that was a long time ago," Korekiyo said, "It's difficult to believe in anything in my line of work, but before I discovered my talent, my sister and I both prescribed to the Shinto faith. I suppose I might not have ever held true belief, but it was nice to have something to hold onto and share. Religion is a comfort, especially in times like these."

"Times like these..." Kaede trailed off, looking up at the ceiling, "How much worse have things gotten in the past few years, anyway? I was mostly isolated for a while, then completed isolated for a year."

"It's pretty bad," Rantaro said, leaning forward in his seat and pressing his hands between his knees, "As far as I can tell... Every time that the Ultimate Initiative or Future Foundation get a hold on somewhere that's infected with Despair, Despair just starts to move in somewhere else."

"That's true," Korekiyo said, "Right now, it's a stalemate battle. Despair can't impact any more than seventy-five percent of the world, and Hope can't impact more than twenty-five. I've been all over for jobs, and things really are okay in those countries which aren't full of Despair."

"Yeah," Angie said, "But even my island was becoming infested with Despair, in spite of my best efforts to fight back against it."

"To this day," Korekiyo noted, "The only part of Japan which has ever truly been liberated from Despair is Towa City. I'd never been there myself, of course, my talent never led me there. However, I can only assume that this compound is in the heart of that city."

"That's a good theory," Rantaro said, "It would make sense, for us to be kept somewhere safe like that. Then again..."

"It's possible that if we were in Towa City, that would mean Despair has infiltrated it," Kaede said, "After all, we still don't know what the intentions here are, or who Ms. S. really is."

"I don't think that it's Despair," Angie said, leaning on the arm of the couch, "Atua says, why would Despair go for us? Why not go for regular Ultimates and leave all of us to die or become Despair, cutting down the total number of Ultimates even more?"

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter why," Kaede said, then glanced to the television up on the wall, "Hey... Does that thing work?"

"The TV? Yeah, it functions," Rantaro said, "I've tried to fix it up a little bit, but it does still have one problem. It can't play live TV, or the news or anything. It's just got a bunch of stuff recorded."

"They're restricting our access to information..." Kaede noted quietly, then turned to the others again, her voice brighter, "But it's still something! You know, I've been thinking... For a while now, I really wished that I could have friends, and watch television again. I know my family can't come back, but... This can still work."

"It can, can't it?" Korekiyo offered a soft smile, "Assuming that Yonaga and Amami didn't already watch absolutely everything before our arrivals."

"We didn't!" Angie protested, "There's so much, we probably couldn't even get through it all if we watched it nonstop right up till the end of our time here. Loads to pick from. What's something that everyone would probably like to watch?"

"How about a cooking competition show?" Korekiyo offered, "Those are generally the sort of thing that everyone can find something or other to appreciate about. I know I can."

"That's true," Kaede said, "Is that okay with everybody?"

"Of course," Rantaro said, nodding a bit, then looked to Angie who just nodded as well. With that confirmation, he reached out and picked up the remote, switching on the television and finding a cooking show among what had been recorded.

Once the show began, Kaede sat back in her armchair and relaxed, glad to just watch the show while surrounded by friends, even if they were new friends that she had yet to connect with on a deeper level. It was nice, and warm, and comforting to be here with these people. It was the first time in a long time she felt honestly happy, and she could tell when she looked to Korekiyo, that he could relate. She was glad she'd convinced him to come downstairs. He deserved and needed to experience some friendship before the Killing Game began.

\---

Back in Kirumi's lab, Kaede looked to Kokichi while she returned the Flashback Light to her bag, "I remembered more about the first night I spent in the Secret Compound. I was the fourth Ultimate to arrive there, so it was just me, Angie, Amami, and Korekiyo. We sat in the lounge and ate sandwiches and watched television together. It was nice."

"Sure sounds it," Kokichi said, putting a hand on his hip, "I remembered more about my first night, too. I was so obnoxious to all of you, but Shuichi stood up for me so that you wouldn't just write me off for being annoying."

"Yeah, I remember that," Kaede said, "He went to retrieve you, then he comes back with the human version of a shitty weasel and tells us that we have to be nice to you? I mean, good move on his part, since you ended up being a pretty good friend in spite of it all."

"Hah..." Kokichi gave a sheepish chuckle, "I didn't really intend on making friends at all, when I first arrived, you know? And being annoying was the best way I knew to be standoffish. Dumb Shuichi made me care way more about all of you than I ever wanted to! Damn that wonderful boy."

"Aw, why didn't you want to become friends at first?" Kaede asked.

"Told you, I was in a much worse place, emotionally, when Shuichi retrieved me. I straight up didn't even trust any of you. I was paranoid that one or all of you would end up hurting me somehow, and I was seriously mad at Shuichi for about a week when he first encouraged you to try and look past my bullshit," Kokichi said, "Like, I was gonna end up getting hurt cause he dissed on my defense mechanism in public like that."

"Wow, I never even realized that," Kaede said, "But I'm glad that it didn't work out the way you hoped, you know. Do you think you were able to open up more quickly here in the Killing Game, because you subconsciously remembered your time in the Secret Compound?"

"That must be it," Kokichi said, "Funny, I should have trusted you all _less_ in here than I did back then. Guess that my lack of paranoia still worked out for me well enough. I'm still here, after all. Rotten as that fact may be."

"It's not rotten," Kaede said, "It's unpleasant to be here, sure, but I'm glad you've survived. If we can get out of here, then we'll be friends forever, you know? And if nothing else, we'll protect each other. And we'll find Maki. You'd be invaluable in doing that, you know."

"I am pretty smart, eh?" Kokichi teased, "I can totally help you figure out where Maki's backup would be stored. Uhh, well. Gokuhara, or Chabashira, or Yumeno would have been better for that, huh? Since they're the ones who retrieved her, know the lab she was built in..."

"We'll just have to do our best," Kaede said, "To bring her back. Because she's the one friend we _can_ bring back."

"Yeah," Kokichi said, "I agree."


	203. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Ally Promise)

"Okay," Kaede said, moving on from the previous topic, "Ouma, what was it that you wanted to show me in the library?"

"Right," Kokichi said, stepping over to the door to leave Kirumi's lab, "Come on, I'll show you what I found when Iruma, Amami, and I were organizing the library. It's looking pretty great in there, to boot! We did a good job."

"I guess I'll be proud of you?" Kaede said, not sure exactly what Kokichi was looking for her to say, but she followed him to the library, and upon opening the door, had an observation, "Oh, I actually am proud of the three of you. Though I can only imagine that Iruma did most of the organizing..."

"Okay, she did do most of it, I can't use one of my arms," Kokichi noted, "But! I am the one who discovered this thing," As he spoke, he wandered into the middle of the room, shoved at a short bookshelf with his shoulder, then gestured for Kaede to join him over there as he crouched down.

Kaede approached, then crouched next to him as he dug his fingers into the carpet, then heaved as best he could with just the one hand, flipping an entire square of carpet up to clatter onto the opposite side of the hole it left behind. In that hole was a ladder, not at all dissimilar to the one that was in the boiler room. Kaede stared down, and couldn't see the bottom of it, then turned to Kokichi again, "I guess that I have to go down there alone, huh...?"

"No, I wouldn't make you go alone! Especially with somebody as unreliable as me hanging out up top here, though I guess that putting the square back _and_ putting the bookshelf in the way again would kind of be a lot of work to trap you," Kokichi said, moving to start climbing down the ladder first as he spoke, "I already figured out how to use a ladder with just one arm, it's not that hard. Just use your legs as usual, but slide your hand along the outside for balance instead of grabbing the rungs."

"Ah, thanks Ouma," Kaede noted, following him down the ladder without hesitation. She would be kind of a hypocrite to worry about him looking up her skirt when that was her own goal so often, and besides, they'd already determined that Kokichi did not and likely never would see anything in her, given her status as a young woman. If anything, looking up would just make him a little uncomfortable, though Kaede doubted he'd even do that much, focusing on descending the ladder in his current situation.

Once they reached the bottom of the ladder, it was clear that this was another portion of the Deep Basement, but it didn't connect to the other one at all. The only lighting in this one was a border of LED strips around a large door at the far end, casting a warm glow that barely illuminated the door at all, like its only purpose was to serve as a reminder that 'hey, the door exists here'.

Kaede approached that door, then pulled out one of the keys from her bag, trying it. It turned in the lock, and she pulled the door open, only to find herself confronted with another door immediately behind that one. She got to investigating, and found that there was also a keyhole on the other side of the door, but that one was shaped differently. She stepped back to the front of the door and removed the key, watching as the door slammed shut with a great 'whoosh'.

She would hate to be caught up in that, for sure. There was no way to beat the door, it was much too fast, and its force would likely do away with anything placed in the hopes of serving as a doorjam. So for the door to stay open, the key needed to stay in it. Kaede replaced the key, then pulled out the second identical one and tried it on the next door.

As luck would have it, that worked too, but there was another door there. Kaede realized she had absolutely no way of knowing how many of these doors there were, or where these doors could lead, for that matter. If where they led was even somewhere that would be useful to her.

Kokichi spoke up, "Hey, I got another one of those keys, by the way. You wanna stick it in the next door? Don't think three would be enough, though. If I had to hazard a guess, there's probably... Four more. One in the courtroom, one in Hoshi's lab, one in Shinguji's, and one in that coolant pool."

"That makes sense," Kaede said as she took the key from him, "Where'd you find this one?"

"In one of the bookshelves in the library," Kokichi noted, "That's why I was thinking, these keys would probably be important here, underneath the library. Turns out I was right! The power of logic prevails again."

"Hm, well then, I hope you're right about where we can find the rest!" Kaede said, and turned the key in the lock to reveal yet another door. She wasn't going to bother removing the keys, since she doubted anybody else even knew about this place to undo the work of getting them open.

"I hope so too!" Kokichi said, "And we should really get to looking, yeah? I'll check the courtroom quick, while you get the coolant, if you want. We can regroup at Shinguji's lab."

"That sounds like a plan to me," Kaede said with a short nod, "You'll find it, right?"

"I found the trapdoor here, didn't I? And I gotta say, it was pretty well-hidden!" Kokichi explained, grinning, "Obviously, I'm good at this kind of stuff. I'm unreliable, Akamatsu, but I can be reliable for you. And for everybody else's sake."

"Then I will rely on you," Kaede said, "Like you can rely on me. Even unreliable people can become relied on in bad situations. There's too much at stake to fail at all."

"That's right," Kokichi said, "Our fates rest on your shoulders, Akamatsu, and it's the least we can do to take some off the load off. But that load's just as important, no matter who's carrying it. I'll carry it with the same care as you, until the bitter end."

"The bitter end?" Kaede asked.

"Whenever that may be," Kokichi said, walking off back towards the ladder, "Until the bitter end can mean a lot of things, you know. But take it in the best possible way. When we get back to the outside world, I'll continue trying my best to be reliable for you. For as long as you need me to. Even if that's our entire lives... After a Killing Game, why should people like us ever want to go our separate ways?"


	204. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Coolant Key)

With that, Kokichi was gone from Kaede's presence, leaving her to think about what he'd said. The conversations she'd had with him... Were seeding doubt in her mind. Kokichi didn't seem to have any intention of making this game his grave. She knew that he was a good liar, but she liked to think that he was being sincere when he said things like that.

However, that raised a real problem in her mind. With the way Kokichi was acting... Either he was lying, or Angie was lying about the time limit. Well, there was one more option, Kaede supposed. Kokichi did set a time limit, but he had faith that he wouldn't need to utilize that deadline now that Kaede was discovering things. Maybe she'd just changed his mind.

There was no reason for Angie to lie about something like that, after all. Kaede didn't need to think about that right now though, she had other things to worry about. Like getting out of this deep basement. She climbed up the ladder and back into the library, then replaced the tile that hid the ladder. She didn't bother shoving the bookshelf back into place, though, because if all went well she'd be returning here in short time anyway.

With that settled, Kaede left the library and went upstairs, to the warehouse. She searched and managed to find, in spite of her original thought that there would only be flour to serve her cause, a bag of cat litter. It was in a strange place, though. Four bags at the very end of a shelf, which didn't seem to follow Kiibo and Kirumi's organization. It was almost like they'd been added specifically so Kaede could do this. But where would they have come from?

Kaede put that out of her mind and hoisted one of the bags onto her shoulder, turning around and carrying it out of the warehouse and upstairs, to Maki's lab. It was pretty heavy, but not so much that she had real difficulty carrying it for the distance she needed to. It was one of those things which felt almost like it weighed nothing when first lifted, then slowly began to strain the muscles as it was carried for longer and the weight inside the bag shifted around to a less optimal position.

Even so, Kaede arrived at Maki's lab in good time, and set the bag down next to the pool of poisoned coolant. She tore open the bag and tipped it over, pouring it into the pond to let it soak up the liquid inside. Once the entire pool was filled up with cat litter, which dried it out, Kaede pulled from her bag another item she'd grabbed to help with this process. A dustpan, without its brush, that she used to shovel the dried-out poison around inside the pool.

Just as expected, in the center was another one of the keys. It evidently was made of a different type of metal than the kind the poison had an effect on, which was definitely a good thing. If it had been corroded, then it wouldn't work anymore, after all... And that just wouldn't do. Kaede knew that there was something important to be found behind that door, and if any of the keys were unaccounted for, then she would never know.

Kaede carefully scooped it up with the dustpan and dropped it onto the grass, a portion that was still alive and well. She poked at it to roll it through the grass, cleaning it up as best she could without touching it. She still didn't want to deal with any light chemical burns she could get from touching any remaining poison left on the key. Once most of the remnants of the coolant were off the key, she pulled a paper towel from her bag and picked it up in that, just to be safe.

With that key retrieved, Kaede remembered that the next place she needed to go was Korekiyo's lab, to meet up with Kokichi and to look for a key there. She stood up where she was and gave one more sweeping look around the room, but there wasn't anything else to find. Miu already took note of everything strange about this room. Kaede wasn't about to find anything else, because while she had her talent on her side, Miu did too. Observation was another important part of cleaning, cooking, anything that a maid was expected to do.

With that confirmation that there wasn't anything left to discover in Maki's lab, Kaede made her way out of the room. She walked into the hallway, then downstairs to the second floor where Korekiyo's lab was situated. When she set her foot down on the third step from the bottom of the staircase, there was a sudden pounding in her head. She leaned against the wall, bringing a hand up to her face, covering her eyes as the feeling passed.

She gingerly took her hand from her face again, squinting ahead to see that Kokichi was already at the other end of the hallway. She couldn't see very well from this far away, but it almost seemed like he was having similar difficulties. After another few steps, though, Kaede couldn't see him at all anymore. White light spread across her vision, and she stumbled to prop herself against the wall of the hallway again, putting all her weight against the drywall.

She took a few deep breaths, but the white overcoming her vision just wouldn't subside, looking the same no matter if her eyes were open or closed. She had a brief moment of panic, thinking that something had gone seriously wrong. That she was being murdered, or maybe she was somehow wrong about the type of poison used in that pool and she'd come into contact with it; But those worries were dispelled soon enough.

Kokichi was right about the light he'd used earlier, that it might have something more to it than he initially thought. Kaede realized in the half a second she had, that the light had something else to give her. It was just delayed. Time-release.

The world warped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eyy more flashbacks sorry


	205. Flashback: Compound Day Seventeen (Retrieval)

Kaede heard a knock on the door of her room, in the Secret Compound.

She hadn't been asleep, though she wasn't sure why she was awake. The clock read that it was three in the morning, but in spite of that, the knock didn't wake Kaede up. It was as if her body somehow knew that there was going to be a knock, and preemptively woke her just in time to keep her from being startled. She wondered if it was one of her friends, as she'd come to consider them really true friends over the course of the past two weeks here.

Kaede got out of bed and walked to the door, opening it only to find somebody completely unfamiliar in front of her. Probably around twice her age, light brown hair in a fluffy bob, black vest over a brown blouse, and dark gloves... Kaede couldn't tell by looking if this person was a very flat girl or a remarkably effeminate guy, but she hazarded a guess at it being the former, "Are you Ms. S.?"

"Huh? No," The person shook their head, pointing at themself to speak in a tone that implied that was a common misconception that they were used to, "Ms. S. is almost ten years older than me, jeeze... Uh, not to mention, I'm a guy, but that's an easy mistake to make. I've been told since I was a kid that I'm an especially beautiful boy, and it's really a pain. If only I were born ugly as a post..."

"Well, if you're not Ms. S.," Kaede said, completely ignoring the rest of what this guy said because frankly, she didn't care, "Then who _are_ you?"

"I can't tell you that. Ms. S. said that you can't see her, though," The guy said, "And that's why I'm here instead. You can call me J. The Killing Game that I was in was never televised, so there's no chance of you knowing anything about me! Uh... Oh, I messed up again. Oh no. Please don't say I said I was in a Killing Game. Now you know that Ms. S. was also involved with one you might have seen and if she knows you know that much then I'll get in trouble... Punishment is scary..."

"Okay. Well, why did you knock on my door, J?" Kaede asked.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot, um..." J looked away from her, fidgeting his feet on the ground, "You need to come with me. It's time to retrieve somebody else. Uh, his name's Shuichi Saihara. The Ultimate Failed Artist. Well, he's about to be failed. We have to get him before he dies, you know? That's how retrievals work..."

"Yeah, okay, let me get some clothes on," Kaede said, gesturing to her pajamas, "You can tell me what the deal is with this Saihara guy on the way, since I'm guessing we'll have to travel kind of far from here. We're in Towa City, right? Fifteen minutes from the nearest city on the mainland..."

"H-huh? How'd you figure out that it's Towa...?" J asked, then clapped his gloved hands over his mouth and looked away, "Jeeze, I messed up _again_... Ms. S. is gonna be so mad..."

"Well, I'm not about to tell anyone you screwed up," Kaede said, getting clothes from her closet, then stepping back to the doorway, "I'm going to close the door, get changed, then open the door again. Don't go anywhere," She did as she said, then continued once she'd reopened the door, now dressed to go outside, "Okay. We'll get going, then? I assume we need to move quickly."

"Ah... yes, we do," J said, "Saihara's fall has been sped up," He started to walk, and Kaede followed after him as he continued, "It's pretty worrisome, to tell you the truth. We knew that the despairs were going to find him, but they did it sooner than expected... Uh, a different group than we thought too, so I don't know what they might do. Truth be told, we might lose him."

"If you lose him..." Kaede asked, keeping step right behind J, "Then what will you do for the Killing Game?"

"I don't know. That call would come from higher up than Ms. S.," J said, "We'd either find another Failed Ultimate, if we ended up with more than sixteen to pick from, or we'd have to get a regular Ultimate, or maybe one that's already starting to become Despair. I wouldn't decide that."

"I'm pretty sure Ms. S. made a big mistake with pairing somebody like you with a detective," Kaede noted, "I think you keep telling me things that you're not supposed to."

"You're right," J groaned, quickening his step in confidence that Kaede could keep up, "I'm definitely going to get punished for telling you so much... Maybe I should just give up on trying to keep anything secret at all, if I'm being punished anyway."

"Yes please!" Kaede said.

"I was kidding," J said.

"I know," Kaede giggled a bit, "I mean, even if you're getting punished anyway, I'm sure you have personal reasons to hide the real important secrets from me. Like what organization you even work for..."

"That's right, I do have my own reasons to keep certain things secret," J said, "Anyway, even though you know we're in Towa, Akamatsu, I'm afraid I'll have to knock you out now."

"Wait, what?" Kaede asked, but she could hardly react before J pulled a syringe off his thigh and grabbed her around her waist with the other arm, jabbing a needle into her neck and immediately injecting its contents. He pulled it right back out, but didn't let go of Kaede.

"Sorry to hold you like this, Akamatsu, but I don't want you to fall on the floor when the drug takes effect... I'm really sorry that it's got to be this way, but come on, no hard feelings? I'm under strict orders..." J's apology was sincere, and he honestly seemed worried that Kaede would be mad at him for it. She decided that if he was that concerned, he wasn't lying about it needing to be this way.

"No hard feelings..." Kaede confirmed, mumbling and slurring her words before she passed out, her entire weight collapsing onto J's arm.


	206. Flashback: Compound Day Seventeen (Travel)

Kaede woke up in a car. Next to her in the backseat was J. She couldn't see out of the windows, and all she could see of the front seat was a small bit of color through a thick lattice, just a bit of pink. She liked that color, but she didn't think too much about the pink she saw through it. It seemed like that pink had to be the clothing, or perhaps hair of the driver, but Kaede knew she wouldn't be able to get any more information to learn anything about that person. She looked to J instead.

"Ah! Akamatsu, you're awake," J noted, "We're almost there, so let me give you a rundown of what we need to do, to retrieve Saihara."

"Yes, please do," Kaede said.

"He's the Ultimate Artist," J explained, "And our intel tells us that he's going to become a Failed Ultimate soon. He was living on the streets for a while, but through selling his art managed to work his way back up and get a small apartment, but he's still struggling. He keeps selling art to afford food and rent, but Despairs just broke in and destroyed all of his paintings. It's unlikely he'd be able to replace enough to sell by the time he needs them..."

"So," Kaede said, "He might do something rash, huh?"

"I wouldn't call suicide in this era rash, but yes," J noted, "It's definitely concerning. I hope that we can get there in time..."

"Why'd you bring me to retrieve him?" Kaede asked, "And not somebody else?"

"Well," J looked away, then sighed, "The thing is, that with the change in events from what we predicted, there could be something even more strange about the situation. Something could go even more wrong, and having a detective would be really helpful."

"Oh, I understand," Kaede said, running a hand back through her hair with her teeth grit, "But, you know, I may be the Ultimate Detective, but I've never actually solved a case on my own before. I've just helped with abstract parts of other cases."

"Well, now's a good a time as any to make your first investigation," J said, "If it turns out to be necessary, that is. I mean, regardless of if you do this or not, the Killing Game will still feel to you like it's presenting your first case."

"Assuming I don't die first," Kaede said.

"A Killing Game where the Ultimate Detective was the first to die? That doesn't make sense," J said, "Detectives are strong and upstanding. Plus, the people who watch it to be entertained would probably find it pretty boring..."

"There are people who watch it not to be entertained?" Kaede asked.

"Of course," J said, "I mean, you were one of them."

"That's fair," Kaede noted, turning toward the window even though she couldn't see out of it. It just felt natural to sit in such a manner while in a car.

"It's not all people who just ended up overhearing it or anything while someone else was watching, though," J continued, "Sometimes, people who hate the idea of a Killing Game will still seek to watch it, you know? Some people just want an excuse to get angry, or they want to prove that they're not too squeamish to watch a human die."

"I don't like that," Kaede said, "It's a lucky person who's too squeamish to watch a human die."

"Some say lucky," J said, "Some say cowardly. It's funny, you know. No matter what side somebody is on... If they're working for Hope or for Despair, if they act as warriors for their cause they have their own standards for bravery. And being able to see a dead body without falling apart seems important to any of them, even if it's for different reasons."

"J..." Kaede mumbled, "Do you think they'd call you a coward?"

"I wish," J said, "But I told you already, didn't I? I've been in a Killing Game before. If I hadn't gotten over my squeamishness, I'd have died."

"I'd really like to know, J," Kaede said, "How you were in a Killing Game which was never broadcast. I thought that the whole point of a Killing Game was to share the despair of turning the most promising young men and women in the country against each other?"

J hesitated, then gave a guarded answer to her question, "Killing Games don't need to be broadcast, they just need to follow general concepts. Sometimes they're not even done in the style you're familiar with. The one that I was involved in didn't have trials or anything, and it wasn't broadcast because it didn't need to be. It was during the height of The Tragedy. There were plenty of Killing Games to go around."

"The Tragedy..." Kaede trailed off, holding a finger to her chin, "That was when Despair managed to get ninety-five percent of the world, right? Before anybody figured out how to fight back."

"Yeah," J said, "Ugh... I guess I just let slip a little too much, again. Nobody is supposed to know when the Tragedy happened."

"Are you older than I thought?" Kaede asked, "I thought that you were about twice my age, but I thought that I'd know it if The Tragedy was still going on when I was born..."

"No, you're probably right," J said, "A few years before you were born, it would have been. At that point in time, you know, it wasn't just high school students who were put through Killing Games."

"Wait... Are you serious?" Kaede asked, eyes widening, "I never heard about that!"

"It's pretty common knowledge," J said, "But I guess that with the way that Despair touched your life... You might not have ended up with it."

"I lack a lot of common knowledge that teenagers should have," Kaede said, "I mean, I did kind of get mostly blocked off from the outside world."

"It's unfortunate," J said, "I'm surprised that you held out as long as you did, in an environment like that. Unfortunate situation, that is. Impressive that you survived it... Uh, sorry. I'm just digging my own grave here, aren't I...?"

"I don't think so," Kaede said, "You seem to think a lot less of yourself than you ought to."

"Ahah... If I was completely honest with you, then you'd hate me for sure," J mumbled, covering his mouth with both hands.

"Shut up," The driver finally spoke, but seemed to be using a voice changer. It came out garbled, and Kaede couldn't even tell if they were a man or a woman, "It's not like it was your fault that shit went wrong. Anyway, we're at the artist's place, so get!"


	207. Flashback: Compound Day Seventeen (Discovery)

J opened the door on his side, climbed out, then went to Kaede's side of the car. She climbed out and he closed the door behind her, then the car was gone before Kaede could even think about turning to look at who the driver was. Kaede turned back to J, who was already walking forward. They were in the heart of a city which was falling apart, and he led her into an apartment building.

They took the stairs two at a time, not the elevator, but moved quickly. Kaede's heart pounded both from the exercise and out of worry what she might find herself confronting in the process of retrieving another Failed Ultimate. After all, Korekiyo could have very well gotten himself blown up too if the explosive planted in her computer was any larger than it was. The size it was, was pretty frightening though.

If she hadn't been pulled out of the way, then it would have been a slow and painful death awaiting her. Storing the laptop on her legs, she'd be too badly burned there to move as her home burned down around her. It was obviously the work of Ultimate Despair. Nobody else would think of something so utterly cruel, she knew it. Not even the people in charge of the Killing Game, whoever they really were. It clearly wasn't Despair, at least, not anymore.

After all, horrific as executions were, at least they were handed out as punishment. The people who suffered them knew what they were getting into; And besides, Kaede thought. They'd become somewhat less brutal over the years, as far as she could tell. At least it wouldn't be a slow death out of left field, a punishment for nothing, a full destruction of everything around them as they died.

Then again, why was Kaede trying to measure the difference between two different terrible deaths? She didn't pay attention. For all she knew, the planned execution for her could be equivalent to the way that the Despairing Hacker tried to assassinate her. She decided to stop thinking about this. They were at the door to Shuichi's apartment anyway.

J opened the door, carefully, and Kaede peered past him into the room. Somehow, it wasn't as bad as she expected. Was she expecting to see a dead body? Because it was pretty bad. There were trace amounts of blood on the floor and walls, and a number of canvases which had been snapped in half, scattered throughout the single room which seemed to contain a kitchen and bedroom. The only door was open, leading clearly to a bathroom. This was a sad apartment, but Kaede was impressed that someone her age was able to afford this much.

"I thought this might happen," J groaned, leaning against the doorframe, "He's missing. They took him."

"They took him?" Kaede asked, furrowing her brow, "Does that mean, we've lost him? He's becoming Despair?"

"There's no way he's becoming Despair," J said, "Not based on what I know about him anyway... Akamatsu, this is the real reason you're here. I need you to figure out where they would have taken him. If we act quick enough, then maybe we can still save his life... At least for a little while..."

"Yeah," Kaede said, voice shaking as she stepped forward into the apartment. She didn't like this pressure. Having somebody's life hinge on her ability to investigate... Frightening. Even so, she knew that it would be the same situation in the Killing Game. Even higher stakes, even. Multiple people's lives might depend on her during the game, not just this one. Even so, it felt even more important.

If she didn't find this Failed Ultimate, then he would die. And somebody else would have to participate in the Killing Game in his place. Somebody more innocent, maybe. Somebody who would otherwise have a good life ahead of them. So Kaede investigated. She searched the entire apartment, and somehow, she found something. A photograph that seemed out of place with everything else.

A warehouse. A photo of a warehouse. Kaede picked it up. She didn't think that the Despairs who took Shuichi would have left it there, he had to have already owned it, but there must be some significance. If Kaede knew anything about Despairs, it was that they would want to inflict the most pain possible. If the warehouse meant something to Shuichi, then they'd at least stop there. She approached J and showed him the photo, "Hey. Any way we can find out where this is?"

"I know where it is," J said, taking the photograph, "K and I know basically everything about all the major cities in the country."

"K?" Kaede asked.

"The driver," J said, "And that's all you'll be finding out about them. It's bad enough that you had to meet me, after all... Not to say that meeting K would be a bad thing or that they're a bad person, I'm probably much worse, but from a planning standpoint... Anyway, come on, there's no time to waste."

J led the way back downstairs and out of the building, then took off running down the street. Glancing at the road, Kaede understood why. Running would probably be faster than getting K to sit through this traffic. They didn't even have to go very far, just a few blocks. It was an even more decrepit neighborhood, and Kaede felt a sense of dread. It seemed like this place had once been full of life.

A miserable sort of life, but life nonetheless. It had been. And now there were only remnants of it. Newspapers plastering to the bricks of the sidewalk, cardboard floating like tumbleweeds through the streets. The traffic had vanished, it didn't seem like this area involved traffic patterns much. People dressed for work walked along the sidewalks at a brisk pace, full of purpose and confidence. Avoiding making themselves targets when they had to go through such an intimidating area.

Although at the same time, Kaede got the feeling that they would move just as quickly before this place became so infused with dread. Even when it was full of life, the quick pace likely would have been a matter of ignoring the people there rather than fear. Either way, it made Kaede sad to see, in the brief amount of time before approaching the warehouse. J hesitated in front of it, so Kaede stepped forward and pushed the door open.

It was almost empty. Nearly empty. There was one person there, though. Sitting in the far corner with his arms wrapped around himself. Kaede took a look around, and there weren't signs of anybody else being there. With the coast clear, Kaede ran into the warehouse to the side of the guy sitting in the corner.

She crouched down in front of him, noticing that he was dressed kind of scruffily, and his clothes were stained with blood. At closer examination, it was certainly his own. There were a few injuries over his body, the most notable one being that his kneecap seemed to have been smashed. Kaede was horrified to see it, but forced herself to lock eyes with the guy instead, and spoke quietly, "You're Shuichi Saihara, aren't you?"

"...Yeah," Shuichi answered, averting his eyes from her, "Are you another Despair? Just kill me already. I'm not going to become Despair."

"I'm not Despair," Kaede said, "I'm like you. I'm a Failed Ultimate. I've come here to save you. Temporarily."

"Temporarily?" Shuichi asked, looking at her again.

"Temporarily," Kaede confirmed, "You'll come and live with other Failed Ultimates, somewhere safe and nice, for a few months. Then you'll participate in next year's Annual Killing Game with us."

"Oh," Shuichi said.

"Trust me," Kaede said, "You'd rather risk dying in a Killing Game than die here and now. At least you'll be happy for a little while. We can patch you up on the way, you'll be good as new soon enough."

"What Ultimate were you?" Shuichi asked, his voice weak and shaking, "Before you failed? How did you fail? Did your friends betray you too?"


	208. Flashback: Compound Day Seventeen (How It Has To Be)

"I was the Ultimate Detective," Kaede said, holding a hand to her own cheek and sighing, "And I accidentally solved a bunch of ciphers that let the Ultimate Despairing Hacker get into a government database. My failure was my own fault, not like yours. I hurt the very cause I was trying to help. But it looks like you just failed to stay safe. It's unfair. But this is how it has to be."

"I understand," Shuichi said, looking away from her again with a heavy sigh, "I just don't... know where I went wrong. I thought I was doing everything I could..."

"Come with me," Kaede said, carefully, getting him to his feet and supporting him on her shoulder. J stepped forward, and Kaede continued speaking, "This is J, he'll help me get you to the car. Then you can tell us everything that happened. How your place got trashed, and how you got so badly hurt..."

"Right," Shuichi said, accepting the help to limp outside, where the car was waiting. Kaede didn't bother trying to get a look at K, just getting Shuichi into the backseat, in between her and J. A silence hung between them all before Shuichi started, softly, to explain, "You guys... Probably already know a lot about me, right?"

"Yeah," Kaede said, "We know you were living on the streets, but you managed to keep making art anyway, and you were able to get yourself an apartment from selling it. And that you became an Ultimate because your paintings have an uncanny ability to bring hope to people."

"I had these friends, when I was still on the streets. That warehouse, the whole neighborhood was kind of like our own little town. We looked out for each other, you know? Shared, and had each other's backs. When I was able to get out, I kept touch with them. Anytime I had extra, I'd share it. I'd invite them to stay with me when it got really cold, and any paintings I couldn't sell, I gave them. Cause a painting can make any place nicer to live in," Shuichi explained, "But even with all of that... Despair got to them."

"So it was your friends, who were the Despairs that came after you?" Kaede asked.

"That must be why it ended up different than our predictions," J said, "The prediction was that it would be a group of random Despairs, but if they were people who knew you... Then of course they'd want to do anything they could to get you on their side. Despair doesn't erase the human ability to be sentimental..."

"I guess so," Shuichi said, then winced, "Ugh... This is awful. It's like sometimes, I can't feel my knee at all, but then it hits me for a few seconds."

"Here," J reached into a pocket on the seat in front of him, coming up with the first aid kit that was apparently stored there, "Let me get you fixed up. Uh... Actually, I'll have to knock both of you out for a little while anyway, why don't I just do that first, and then you don't have to feel it... Because you know, first aid can kind of hurt too... And I don't want to hurt anyone."

"That's fine," Shuichi said, "I'd probably prefer it that way anyhow... Yeah. Thank you."

"Of course," J said, then pulled two more syringes like the one from earlier off a pouch on his leg, then leaned over and sedated both of them. Kaede couldn't help but be impressed at his skill with that thing, managing to poke her in exactly the same spot as before, to only leave a single mark behind. This time, since Kaede was expecting it, she leaned against the side of the car and closed her eyes, letting the wooziness take her away. She knew she was being more complicit than she ought to be, in this situation, but it was the best that she could do. If it was just her, she might have pushed J for more information, refused to be sedated, any number of things.

But Kaede wouldn't drag innocent Shuichi, who had just been through so much, into her own internal obligation to kick up a fuss. That just wouldn't be fair to him at all.

When Kaede woke up, she was in her room back at the Secret Compound again. She stared up at the ceiling, then got out of bed. A hand went to her neck. There was a bandage over it, but she definitely had been poked by a syringe twice. Retrieving Shuichi with J hadn't been a dream. She glanced at the clock. Nine in the morning, the next day. It had been evening by the time Shuichi got into the car, now that Kaede thought about it. She hadn't known what time it actually was, but even she could get a general idea just by looking at the visual cues of the area around her.

Kaede was still dressed from yesterday... Of course, J wouldn't do something as salacious as undressing her before putting her to bed. He didn't have the balls. Kaede did feel gross after sleeping in clothes, though, so she got another outfit from her closet and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind herself. She needed to take a shower, then get dressed, then go downstairs and see if Shuichi had met the others yet. She wondered just how serious his injuries were.... Would he have a cast on his knee? Probably. Depending on the extent of the other injuries, he might need some help getting around and such.

Kaede sighed as she stepped into the shower. As much as she might like to help Shuichi, that job would probably fall to Rantaro or Korekiyo, for reasons of privacy, if it were to that extent. Not like Kaede thought about those things... Of course not. She definitely didn't. And she _definitely_ didn't have at least some small inklings of a crush on everybody here. She wasn't like that! No way!

Kaede finished showering, then changed into clean clothes and wandered downstairs with her hair still wet. The only person already in the lounge was Korekiyo, who greeted her immediately with curiosity, "Where were you yesterday, Akamatsu?"

"Oh," Kaede said, tapping a finger to her chin, "You didn't hear? There's a new guy. I went to retrieve him. I didn't go with Ms. S. though, she sent somebody else to bring me."

"A new guy?" Korekiyo asked, then patted the seat on the couch next to himself, "Tell me about it."

Kaede sat down in the spot he indicated, "His name's Shuichi Saihara. He's the Ultimate Artist, and he seems nice. He's like you and me. Despairs tried to get him killed, and that's how he became a Failed Ultimate."

"Mm," Korekiyo noted, "So is he injured?"

"Yes," Kaede said, pressing her hands between her knees and looking away from Korekiyo, "It seems pretty bad, actually. One of his kneecaps was completely smashed."

"That's horrible," Korekiyo noted, "Depending, it's possible that could cause him trouble for the rest of his life, and even if not... It had to have been quite painful. That's actually a common technique to get information out of somebody."

"He was surprisingly level-headed, for having such an awful injury..." Kaede mumbled.

Korekiyo leaned back against the arm of the couch with a bit of a shrug, "Well, you know, that probably says something about him. He must have been through quite a bit in his lifetime... Either that, or he's just got a very strong soul."

"Probably a little bit of both," Kaede said, "That's very poetic of you, Shinguji. That he's got a strong soul, I mean."

"I wouldn't say it is," Korekiyo said, "But even if it were, I can't take credit. That's something that my sister used to say... I always wondered how people in cities overrun by despair could hold onto hope at all, and she'd say it was because their souls were stronger than darkness."

"Funny," Kaede said, "All along, it turned out your soul was stronger than darkness too. I think so, anyway. I mean, you're still able to be grounded like this, even with what your Ultimate Talent turned out to be... Even after you were stuck doing something that most people think is unforgivable, you've still given me hope."

"You know," Korekiyo said, glancing away, "You kind of remind me of her. You're just as much a ray of sunshine as she was, I mean. And you listen to me, and you don't judge me for what I've done. I hope you don't mind me saying that I've come to consider you a precious friend, even though we've only known each other for a few weeks... Kaede."

"It doesn't bother me at all," Kaede said, "I think the same. Well, except that you don't remind me of Keiko at all."

"Heh," Korekiyo chuckled a bit, then sighed, "I know that Yonaga said we shouldn't think about the future, but... I'm not looking forward to forgetting we were friends."

"I'm not looking forward to that either," Kaede said, "I mean, I wasn't scared of you at all when I met you, but it might be different in a Killing Game..."

Before Korekiyo could agree, there was an odd sound from the direction of the stairs, and they both turned to see that Shuichi was coming downstairs, on crutches. It seemed like he already knew well how to use them. He looked to both of them and gave a sheepish smile, "Morning. Hi Akamatsu. And nice to meet you, uh... You."


	209. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Hatred)

Kaede woke up on the floor of the second story hallway in the Ultimate Academy. She took a few deep breaths, then got back to her feet and staggered down the hallway. She found Kokichi in a similar position, but he hadn't stood up just yet. Kaede crouched down next to him, "Hey, you okay?"

"I'm guessing you got another memory too, huh?" Kokichi asked, holding a hand to his forehead as he leaned against the wall, "I found out that I helped to retrieve Gokuhara. I didn't even remember doing that to begin with. So I guess there's still some holes..."

"Same here," Kaede said, "Apparently, I retrieved Saihara. It was really weird... Really secretive. I mean, the person I went with was bad at keeping secrets! But the whole thing in general. I had to be knocked out when traveling to the location."

"Same here," Kokichi said, getting to his feet with a heavy sigh, "Retrieving Gokuhara was difficult. He wasn't in a good way at all, like. He would have become Despair within a week, I guess, as much as somebody like Gokuhara _could_. He would have just gone on a rampage, attacking malevolent Despairs and suffering Despairs alike. It would have been bad, if we didn't retrieve him. That's what Ms. S. said, anyway."

"So you did meet Ms. S.?" Kaede asked, "As far as I've remembered, I haven't. Apparently I might have recognized who she really was if I did, so somebody else took me to retrieve Saihara."

"I definitely met her," Kokichi said, "I didn't remember she was called Ms. S. when I first remembered her and Shuichi retrieving me. I kind of get the feeling that... Even if I had been able to get into Tojo's lab before this last trial, that Flashback Light wouldn't have been there. If you think about what Motherkuma said, the last batch of lights were probably all created by The Mastermind, then cherrypicked by Monokuma. But now The Mastermind's actually in charge again, and was able to give us a light that actually gives up real information."

"The original plan of the Killing Game fell apart," Kaede said, "And this is how they're trying to fix it?"

"As much as it can be fixed," Kokichi said, "Pretty sure that we've managed to make this thing totally broken. All that's left is to finish the game as much as we can."

"And I guess that the best way to do that is to find the truth, at this point," Kaede noted, "So The Mastermind is giving us the tools that we need, to actually get the real truth."

"Of course," Kokichi said, clicking his tongue a bit as he approached the floorboard which served as an entrance to Korekiyo's lab, "It's all that we can do, after all. From the inside of the situation, without our full memories. We just have to try our best."

"Yeah," Kaede said with a small nod, "What do you think is going to happen, Ouma? How this could come to an end?"

"I think," Kokichi said, "It has to be over as soon as there are only five people left. With a game this broken, they'll end it at the bare minimum, I'd guess."

"Five people..." Kaede trailed off, "I wish it could be more, you know. There could be some way, right? I don't want anybody else to die."

"Are you sure about that?" Kokichi asked, "I mean, if somebody killed The Mastermind, then six people would survive, I guess. And last I knew, you don't want The Mastermind to survive like I do."

"I don't," Kaede said, "In an abstract way, anyhow. The Mastermind is horrible, I can't possibly forgive them. But looking at everyone as a person, I don't want anyone to die at all. How could I?"

"It's a funny disconnect, isn't it?" Kokichi prodded, "You want everyone to live. Of course you would! But you hate one person here so much you wish they'd die, without even knowing which of those people it is. Because it's their fault that everyone else has suffered. I understand it, Akamatsu. I just don't feel the same way."

"And why not?" Kaede asked.

"Because," Kokichi said, "The Mastermind hasn't told me why they did this. But there aren't any lies between any of us anymore, you know. There are secrets, but there aren't any lies left. Whichever of us The Mastermind is, Akamatsu, it's not a lie what they've been through. Think about it. All of us were pulled from our darkest moment. At a time like that, would it really be that hard to be convinced to not just participate, but _cooperate_ in a Killing Game? Heck, we all did that in some way, by retrieving others."

"So The Mastermind," Kaede said, "Could just be a victim of whatever organization is really responsible?"

"Just a victim? I wouldn't go that far," Kokichi said, "After all, they're Ultimate Judgment. Whatever that implies... It's more cooperation than an innocent could possibly do. But I do have to say that it's not a matter of who's horrible enough to agree to something like this. It's a matter of who's weak enough to really believe that this was a good idea, after hitting rock bottom. And you know, Akamatsu. That really easily could have been you. Could have been me. Could be any one of us who was asked. It probably even could have been Shuichi. Ms. S. picked who she thought was best for the job, and convinced them. Misery does funny things to a person."

"I would never-" Kaede started, but Kokichi cut her off.

"That's right, you never would. Not now. Not the Kaede Akamatsu that I've come to know and trust. But Akamatsu, in the moment she learned she'd unwittingly helped Despair to make a huge hit against her country? I wouldn't trust her with my schedule, let alone my life. Our most vulnerable moments were used against us all, to make us participate in this game, you can't deny that. I used Gokuhara. You used Shuichi. That's how it had to be, you know?"

"All it would take would be somebody thinking that all of this, their cooperation in the Killing Game, was how it had to be," Kokichi continued, "That doesn't absolve them. I know they truly believe they were doing the right thing, and it's obvious that they weren't to any one of us. But at the same time, while they think they did what was right, they consider themself to be the worst individual of any of us. Ultimate Judgment has passed the harshest judgment on their own actions."

"How is that possible?" Kaede asked.

"In The Mastermind's head," Kokichi said, "The Killing Game is a necessary evil. But hurting us by putting us through it... makes them beyond disgusting. It's contradictory, isn't it? But that's how they think. So, you know, I don't think you can hate this person any more than they already hate themself."


	210. Daily Life: Day Twelve (Crawlspace)

"I don't care if I can't hate them more," Kaede said, "Because no matter how miserable The Mastermind is, there's really no way I can forgive them."

"Suit yourself," Kokichi said, then stomped the floorboard again, popping it up in the same manner he had the first time he showed it off to Kaede, though anytime Kaede had used it on her own she'd removed the board gently. With her hands. Then again, she supposed that even in a situation like this, Kokichi had to express his showmanship.

"Why do you care so much, anyway?" Kaede asked, crouching down next to the hole in the floor, "The way you talk about it, it's like you know it firsthand. Like it's you."

"I told you, you can believe that if you want," Kokichi said, "Whether it's true or not, I honestly don't mind! Even if you decided that you really did hate me so much, Akamatsu, I was still telling you the truth earlier. I'll be by your side and help you till the end. If you decided to kill me, then that would be the end. I still would consider you my friend, and an admirable person who can succeed, on my dying breath!"

"Jeeze," Kaede groaned, running a hand back through her hair, "I guess I'm just spouting hot air, when I say that I'd hate The Mastermind no matter who it is. It's not like I feel angry at you, at all, when you say that it might be you. I just don't have anything against you, at all. There isn't any seed for hatred to grow from, towards you as a person..."

"So the only people that you could hate if you found out they were The Mastermind," Kokichi said, "Would be Shirogane or Angie, huh? Cause I think, those are the only people that you dislike at all right now. Funny to think how your own girlfriend is one of the only people here that you could _actually_ find it in you to wish dead. I dunno if that's healthy!"

"It's fine," Kaede said, waving him off, "I know it is. I mean, could we really have a good relationship at this point? I'm a detective, and she was the culprit in a case that I had to investigate. I was telling Iruma though, that I know that it's not good right now, for either of us. But I want to work on making it better eventually."

"That's noble of you," Kokichi said, "Maybe it's even better, to have something that's not so great, and work to turn it into something wonderful instead. That way, you'll know what the warning signs are if things started to go downhill again. Right?"

"That's a good point," Kaede said, "See, it's not so bad. I'm sure that if Tsumugi and I both put in the work, we can do it."

"I think so too," Kokichi said with a small nod, then climbed down into the crawlspace under the floor, calling back up to her, "Now, come on! There's no time to waste. We need to finish investigating if you're ever going to have the time to make your relationship work, you know."

"Right," Kaede said, then waited till Kokichi moved out of the way so that she could climb down into the crawlspace with him. She let him lead the way, but she kept her fingers by his ankle to keep track of him better this time and avoid knocking herself out. If only the Flashback Light they'd picked up wasn't this weird, time-release one, Kaede would use it as a normal flashlight, like Angie had done with the light that gave the vague idea of 'roles'. That was definitely a strange one, probably why Angie found it in the warehouse and not anywhere more interesting.

Still, Kokichi's ankle worked well enough to ground her and help her avoid the posts. He moved a lot slower than before, probably because one of his arms was pretty much useless. Based on Miu's assessment of his injuries, as far as Kaede heard, it was best if he didn't use his arm at all. Stitches for a gash that went from nearly his shoulder to his wrist could be popped if he wasn't careful, was the main reason, and he'd been doing pretty well at avoiding the need for anybody to stitch him up again.

Kaede didn't mind moving slowly through the crawlspace. After all, Kaito had pretty thoroughly determined that the only bugs on the entire campus were the ones in his lab. Crawlspaces really didn't have any sort of unpleasantness to them without the dangers of spiders or centipedes hiding out inside them. Kaede guessed that as far as anyone knew, there _could_ be rats or mice.

But, she didn't mind those as much. Kaede actually thought that while bugs were gross, and reptiles were creepy, most rodents were cute, and she'd even like to have a pet rat someday. Though, a domesticated one. There was still a little fear there that a pest rat would bite her, but that wasn't very likely.

When Kokichi reached the end of the crawlspace, Kaede noticed that he hesitated a bit, then he whispered, "I'm not sure I can actually climb out of here without using my other arm, Akamatsu. It's a pretty tall crawlspace, and let's be real, I'm short and weak."

"Don't worry about it," Kaede said, carefully squeezing past him to the hole in the floor in Korekiyo's lab. The more she remembered about him, the more she wasn't keen on the idea of going back in there. His lab served as a reminder of who he became after he forgot about his principles. When his goal became warped and he killed someone he'd once considered a friend. Even so, Kaede knew that there was probably a key in here. She climbed out of the hole, but didn't turn to help Kokichi up.

She was frozen in place by what she saw, slumped against the far wall. There, in Korekiyo's lab, was a dead body. Eyes glazed over, blood dripping from its mouth and no visible injuries; And it wasn't one of Kaede's peers. It wasn't even the body of anyone her own age.

"I guess I have to announce that a body has technically been discovered," Monokuma's voice rang out over the PA, bouncing in Kaede's head like a migraine as she stared, "However, no need to worry about it. That's the body of a non-participant in the Killing Game. No trial will be held and nobody will be punished. Just gotta let you know!"

To Kaede, though, that body wasn't just the corpse of a non-participant. It was the corpse of the only non-participant she knew. One who said that he was going to be punished for saying too much to Kaede. It was J.


	211. Deadly Life?: Day Twelve (Hint)

Kaede couldn't move. She couldn't even blink. This was wrong. This was so wrong.

The shock at seeing her classmates die, that couldn't compare to this. Because on a subconscious level, Kaede was expecting that. She was prepared at least for the possibility that she would see them become corpses, because they were participants in a Killing Game. She was shocked each time, devastated at who it turned out to be, but on some level, she knew that it was going to happen.

Not this. Kaede never could have expected this, anywhere in her being. There wasn't even the smallest concern that she would see J killed here. It didn't just mean that J was, for some reason, inside the Ultimate Academy. It also meant that even people who were cooperating with the organization in charge... Weren't safe. It meant that whoever set up the Killing Game was even willing to have one of their own killed, one of their own who'd already survived one Killing Game.

One of their own who'd survived a Killing Game as a child.

Kaede doubted that the concept of the Killing Game was produced by the same people who now conducted them, so she had always felt like they at least weren't so depraved as whoever first created Killing Games. The terror of having an idea like that was long in the past, but now that Kaede witnessed this... This was crossing a new line. This was an act of betrayal on their part. They were just as bad after all. No wonder The Mastermind had at one point been deposed.

Kaede wondered if the people behind the game were plotting to kill The Mastermind too, and suddenly some of her hypothetical hatred had to evaporate. The Mastermind had turned on the organization... Even now, Motherkuma listened to them because they had a 'better idea than the higher ups'. That didn't mean that they were actually working with the organization again. That didn't mean that the organization behind this wasn't still planning to have them killed.

J was a warning. Nobody was safe. Even if they got through The Killing Game, then there wasn't safety waiting for them on the other side. Just cooperation, and eventual death if they messed up. Kaede didn't think that the information J gave her was an offense punishable by death, though. Especially since she had it erased anyway. Especially since most of the Flashback Lights tiptoed around that memory to begin with. It wasn't like she could have naturally rediscovered a memory like that, unless she'd met J again. That easily could have been avoided...

"Akamatsu?" Kokichi called up from in the crawlspace, his voice actually shaking a bit, "What... What did you find up there?"

"His name was J. Well, I don't know what his name really was, but that's the name he gave me," Kaede answered, slowly getting up the strength to turn and help Kokichi out of the crawlspace, "He took me to retrieve Saihara. I don't know why he's here. He's an adult. He was working with Ms. S...."

Kokichi took Kaede's hand and with her help, got clumsily out of the crawlspace, then looked across the floor to the body. He stared for a few moments before speaking again, "It's a warning, isn't it?"

"That's what I thought too," Kaede said, "If he's dead, and he was working with them... Then we're not safe at all, given we're not working with them. And The Mastermind, if they betrayed them..."

"The Mastermind is doomed," Kokichi mumbled, "There's no way... If they live through the game, it's unlikely that they'll actually be okay, back in the outside world, after everything that's happened..."

"Ouma..." Kaede started, but came up short of anything to say to actually try and comfort him. He was right, after all. He was completely correct. Kaede couldn't lie to him, and there wasn't anything to say when in certainty that somebody who he cared about, who he'd been trying to protect, was going to die no matter what.

"I'm still not going to tell you who it is," Kokichi said, "Because it's better if you figure it out, Akamatsu. You are the Ultimate Detective, after all. That's part of your role, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Kaede agreed with a nod, "It is. My role is to make sure that the game doesn't end early, by finding the correct culprits. And to uncover the mystery of the Academy in general. Ouma... What's your role?"

"Haah..." Kokichi took a shaky breath, showing Kaede a grin more bitter than any yet, "As the Ultimate Magician, I sure would have liked if my role was to make everybody happy. But it seems that I'm only coming into my role now, with the investigation of the Academy. My role is to... Through any means necessary, facilitate the completion of the Killing Game."

"That's why you're helping me," Kaede said, then looked away and let a bit of a sad chuckle leak into her voice, "And you're helping The Mastermind too, right? I mean, it makes sense. I think that at this rate, you've spent time alone with everybody but Shirogane since the last trial... But I guess that also means that you could be The Mastermind, huh? That sounds a lot like what their role could be described as."

"It does, doesn't it?" Kokichi asked, bringing a hand back to scratch his neck, but then lowering it, "I mean, I have been telling you that it could be me. Maybe I'm not allowed to actually tell you straight-out who it is, and this is me crying for help. But you couldn't even kill me if that was true, huh?"

"What _were_ you going to say?" Kaede asked, reaching for his wrist, "You were about to scratch your neck."

"Huh? What of it?" Kokichi asked.

"I've seen you do that only a few times before, and it was always right before you were completely honest with me," Kaede said, "So what were you about to say?"

"Ah..." Kokichi trailed off, turning to look down at the floor, "Jeeze, I never realized... No wonder I'm so uncomfortable telling the whole serious truth!"

"I've only noticed you doing it with me," Kaede said, "But I know you've been honest with other people too."

"I guess that's cause," Kokichi mumbled, "I'm always scared of how you'd react to the shit I have to tell you, y'know? The type of person that you are, Akamatsu... You know _everything_ , at least that's what your talent makes it seem like. And as the Ultimate Detective, you need to use others. Not like that's always a bad thing, and with you, it isn't. Even the best detective needs cooperation from others. Even so, I guess that... Considering the sort of power you've got over people here, you remind me of somebody I'd rather not think about. I know that it's dumb. You're not actually anything like him... "

"No, I understand," Kaede said, looking away, "It's fine, you know? Apparently I reminded Shinguji of his sister even though I wasn't really like her... I just remembered that. So if it's my fate to remind people of others, then I guess it has to be balanced between good memories and bad ones, huh?"

"It's not like it's an active thing," Kokichi said, "It's just that, when I have to tell you something seriously, for some reason I always get afraid that you'll get angry about it and attack me in some way. It's just for a second. It's not like it's you. It's the position you're in."

"Well, you're being honest with me right now," Kaede noted, "And you don't sound scared."

"Ah..." Kokichi trailed off, closing his eyes as he took a few deep breaths, "It'd just be the important stuff, huh? The way I feel isn't important. I know you wouldn't get angry about that. But when it comes to the Killing Game, unraveling the mystery that's your responsibility..."

"I get it," Kaede said.

"What I was going to say," Kokichi mumbled, looking away again, "Is that, as much as I want to keep it vague, let you think it could be me and not the person that it is... I'm not The Mastermind. I'll say that now that I know they're going to die no matter what I do. And that's the biggest hint I'll give you, okay? You can tell, I'm not lying. It really isn't me. If only it was, really. Things might have been different. Then again, maybe not. I probably still would have screwed it up."

"I should say something like, maybe it's better off this way, or something..." Kaede muttered, glancing back at J's body again, "But you know, no matter which way you look at it... The outcome we want, or the outcome that the people who planned this want, it's all just an absolute disaster."


	212. Deadly Life?: Day Twelve (Unnecessary)

"Come on," Kokichi said, moving back toward the hole in the floor, "Let's get out of here."

"We still need to find the-" Kaede started, but Kokichi just held his hand up, showing that he had the key between his thumb and his palm.

"It was behind you. I snatched it," Kokichi said, "I can understand how you missed it. This is serious, and I'm pretty good at sleight of hand even when I'm not trying. We should get out of here."

"I..." Kaede clutched her arms around herself, her voice shaking, "I need to investigate the body-"

"You don't need to do anything! Monokuma said itself, there isn't going to be any trial for this guy. There's nothing saying that you have to figure out how he died," Kokichi said, reaching out to grab Kaede's wrist, "This isn't a case that has to be solved, so it's no wonder you look like you're about to hurl..."

"I-I know," Kaede said, "I know that it's not necessary, but I need to do it anyway. It might end up being important to figure out the mystery of the Academy, you know...? Yeah, you're right that I'm having a hard time with this because there isn't a trial hanging over me, I can't set my feelings aside for the sake of finding the truth with something like this, but that doesn't mean I can just... Not do it..."

"Akamatsu," Kokichi said, "With the past cases, you haven't even needed to deal with something quite like this. Most of the time, the Monokuma file at least tells you some of what you need to know..."

Kaede hissed a breath through her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut, "Seriously, I've always been squeamish about this sort of thing but I can get over it for necessity, and this is still necessity, I should be able to-"

"Hey," Kokichi said, "It's because it's an adult corpse."

"Huh?" Kaede asked, looking back to Kokichi.

"You've solved cases involved dead people your own age. But the last time you dealt with dead people who were older than you, it kicked off what was probably the most traumatizing time in your life before the game, right?" Kokichi prodded.

"Ah..." Kaede trailed off, "I guess you're right about that. Still, what good is an Ultimate Detective who can't stand investigating these sort of things? After the game, if what you're saying is right, I'll probably have a similar association with people our age too. What am I supposed to do then, investigate child homicides?"

"Hopefully, once we're out of here, you won't have to investigate anything ever again," Kokichi said, crawling back toward the body. He investigated the pouch on J's leg, then opened it up to find a few pills. He paused, then turned back to Kaede, "Anyway, it's not that big a mystery. I think he took a cyanide pill. Now can we please just get out of here?"

"Yeah," Kaede nodded, "I'll go into the crawlspace first this time, so I can help you out on the other side," And with that, she dropped back under the floor. She'd done this enough times that she was able to navigate back to the original entry point on her own. She climbed out, only to find herself face-to-face with Miu.

"I figured that you'd be here," Miu said, "I mean, well, there weren't many places that you could have found a body that none of us would have noticed before going to sleep."

"Hi, Iruma," Kaede said as she climbed the rest of the way out of the crawlspace, "Yeah. You thought right. A non-participant is dead in Korekiyo's lab."

"A non-participant?" Miu asked, "So what Monokuma said was right?"

"His name is J... Was J," Kaede explained while she turned to help Kokichi up from the crawlspace, ""He was working with the people who are behind this game. With Ms. S."

"Ms. S.?" Miu asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Oh, right," Kokichi noted, joining the conversation as he reached into Kaede's bag, "We found another Flashback Light and it's giving up more details about our time in the Secret Compound. Including codenames that the people in charge were using. Like Ms. S. and J."

"Ah-" Miu barely had time to utter a short sound in surprise before Kokichi had pulled the light out and shone it in her face. Kaede watched as Miu grappled with the new information, then glared at Kokichi, "Okay! You need to warn me before doing that sort of thing!"

"Sorry, sort of thought that the fact we were talking about finding this was warning enough," Kokichi said, shrugging as he returned the light to Kaede's bag, "Anyway, that's a time release light, by the way. You'll get more memories back in about an hour, probably. Maybe more after that, we haven't gotten that far yet. Anyway, why are you awake?"

"The announcement woke me up," Miu explained, "And I thought it was more important for me to find out what was going on... I got kind of too anxious to go back to sleep."

"Well," Kaede said, "If you'd like to help, you could go check some of the Ultimate Labs of people who are still alive? We're looking for..." She dug in her pocket for one of the keys, "Keys that are identical to these ones. No idea how many we need."

"I can do that," Miu said, then hesitated and looked from the key back to Kaede, "Ah, are you okay, Mistress Akamatsu?? You seem really shaken up."

"It's understandable," Kokichi answered for her, "To see the death of one of our peers in a Killing Game, it's horrible, but on some level you're still prepared to see it. To see a non-participant, an adult who shouldn't even be here... And one that Akamatsu knew, no less? Of course that would have an impact."

"Yeah," Kaede mumbled with a nod, "And the more I remember, the worse everything else gets too... Were it up to me I wouldn't have shown you that Flashback Light, Iruma."

"That's why I didn't ask," Kokichi said, then turned to Miu with a dumb grin, "So which of us is right?"

"I..." Miu trailed off, turning away, "I remembered the day that I arrived. Everyone was already handling their own chores and cooking perfectly fine, and I felt really out of place, but Idabashi and Tojo helped get me on the schedule to cook dinner the next night. And... Maki was mostly new, too. She'd just been there a few days before me, so even though we didn't end up talking much before the game, we had that going for us. I don't know. I don't like remembering new things about three dead people. But at the same time... Having the memory is kind of important. Neither of you are right or wrong."

"That's definitely a satisfactory answer!" Kokichi said, then turned to Kaede, "Anyway, there's one more place that probably has a key, right? I guess we better have a chat with Hoshi."


	213. Deadly Life: Day Twelve (Window to Despair)

"Yeah," Kaede agreed with a firm nod, getting to her feet after they'd all been kneeling beside the hole in the floor. She stepped away, making the personal decision to leave it open if anyone was curious. Then she watched as, individually, Kokichi and Miu made the same choice, "Hoshi did say his lab was full of things that The Mastermind shouldn't know he has, right? One of these keys would fall under that heading, maybe."

"Mhm, that was my thought process," Kokichi said with a nod, wandering toward the stairs again, "Come on, Akamatsu."

Kaede followed after him without hesitation, giving Miu a quick wave with her departure. Miu waved back, then turned the other way to start on the task she'd been given. Kaede and Kokichi went upstairs, finding themselves again on the larger-than-life fifth floor. Kaede hesitated at the corner, not turning down the hallway that separated Tenko's lab from Ryoma's, and turned to Kokichi, "Hey, Ouma?"

"Yeah?" He asked, stopping next to her and turning to lock eyes with her.

"You and Chabashira were really good friends, but..." She looked away, "You were so harsh on her, during the trial. Why would you say something like that? That she wasn't any better than the type of people who hurt you?"

"Because she needed to realize it," Kokichi said, "I didn't want things with her to end that way. Obviously, I didn't want things to end at all. She stood up for me all the time, we had an understanding. Like you, you had an understanding with her too. Someone like her... She really was amazing, huh? But if Gokuhara started to despair, then she lost her only remaining anchor. No more Himiko, no more Maki... That Chabashira, who I was so cruel to, that wasn't Tenko anymore. That was just the Ultimate Despairing Anthropologist."

"She really was Despair by then...?" Kaede asked.

"Of course," Kokichi said, "Maybe if it was just that she and Gokuhara collaborated to spare us from the outside world, I wouldn't think as much. But she went too far, she left his body hidden for days, made the perfect crime that we could only uncover with a lie and a bizarre occurrence. Then, she didn't even really regret doing it, you know? She wanted forgiveness, but she wasn't actually apologetic. The worst part about it was how much the execution would hurt. She has pretty bad pain tolerance, after all. Tenko was a good person who wanted to help everyone around her... But in despair, she twisted that around. She became selfish, but still thought she was acting for our own good."

"So she did become Despair..." Kaede trailed off, "So did Idabashi, huh?"

"Mhm," Kokichi gave a nod, "Shinguji might have, also. It's harder to tell with him. But, let's assume Idabashi was the first one. That's probably what derailed this Killing Game. The point of the game was never to make more Ultimate Despairs. There's other ways to do that which don't kill off more than half of the options. And the ones who did despair were killed before they could even complete their transformation. They still seemed a little bit human to the end. A little bit hopeful."

"Yeah..." Kaede trailed off, "They died before they could actually, really become Despair. Idabashi and Chabashira both, if they turned completely, they wouldn't have tried to have us indirectly killed in that way. They just would have killed us."

"It's almost like the environment of the Killing Game is designed to make sure that sort of thing happens," Kaede said, "Someone who was just beginning to despair would see that as an easier, less painful way to end things... And assuming that the investigation goes fine, they'll then be executed before they can get any worse."

"Yeah," Kokichi said with a nod, "You know, I have to wonder about Tenko's trial, if you think of it that way. It was the perfect crime, excluding two things. Angie's lie, and Himiko's possession of Tenko. The latter doesn't seem that possible, but I guess it could have something to do with the Ultimate Anthropologist title, or it was a psychological break because Tenko knew that Himiko never would have approved. Even so, it's almost too convenient."

"Do you think that it was something organized by the people behind the game, to make sure that it wouldn't end prematurely?" Kaede asked, "Based on what Motherkuma said, they still don't want us all to end up dead."

"Maybe," Kokichi said, "Angie and I were planning to just keep throwing lies around to see what stuck, so I could see the people behind this having some sort of influence to force a confession if we hit upon the right answer, so that we wouldn't all end up dead... If they want something from us, then the idea of everyone being killed was an empty threat all along."

"If it _was_ an empty threat, then Maki..." Kaede trailed off.

"That update she got was never intended to do that. It was to make her commit a murder," Kokichi said, "But there's no way that we could have known it was an empty threat. Even if we did, her programming may have still prevented her from taking that chance. It's really unfortunate, huh?"

"It is," Kaede sighed, looking around the corner into the hallway, "You're pretty clever, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Kokichi said, "Too bad that never helped me too much! With me, it always seems to be I get out of one special Hell and immediately find myself in another one. I don't even know that it would be any different if the world weren't in despair, my luck's just that awful!"

"Ouma," Kaede said, "Just because it's been that way for a while, doesn't mean it always will. I mean, look on the bright side. At least once we get out of here, you'll have all of us at your side from now on! I mean, if nothing else, Iruma can protect you. She's way stronger than she looks..." She trailed off, looking away, "Jeeze, I guess that when we did that, Chabashira was already Despair..."

"Akamatsu, that's-" Kokichi started, only for Kaede to cut him off with a statement absurdly lacking in tact.

"Do you think that being in despair is the reason why Chabashira made Iruma wear shorts to do the ropes course?"

Kokichi evidently did a double take at Kaede's words, then gave the best answer he could come up with, "No, I think that Tenko would have done that anyway. You and Iruma really are disastrous to be around sometimes..."

"Pff, shut up," Kaede waved him off, then stepped out and started to walk down the hallway, "No wonder you and Chabashira got along, you're both no fun..."

"Okay then, Akamatsu," Kokichi said, wandering up to the door to Ryoma's lab. He knocked on it, only for there to be no response. He stepped away, and gestured for Kaede to give it a try.

She knocked obnoxiously loud on the door, and there was still no answer. Kaede hesitated a minute, then grabbed the doorknob and pushed forward, harshly. She knew that Ryoma slept against the door to prevent people just barging in while he was getting his much-needed rest. To Kaede's surprise, the door swung open easily, almost making her fall face-first to the floor with the unnecessary force. She lifted her head from where her eyes connected with the ground she almost fell to-

And immediately wished that she hadn't.

Looking up was definitely a mistake. She let go of the doorknob, taking staggered steps forward, like she wouldn't believe what she saw unless she looked in more detail. A hand went to the beanie she'd been granted as she stared at the scene before her.

There was a filing cabinet at the far side of the room, a long one with plenty of drawers. In one of the drawers was Ryoma. Well, most of him, hanging over the edge of said drawer. His head wasn't there, though. His head was _atop_ the cabinet. Thoroughly separated, dripping blood down the front of the thing.

And on his face was a sad smile.


	214. Deadly Life: Day Twelve (Survivor's Lab)

"Hey everybody!" Monokuma's voice was piercing and disgusting over the PA, "Unlike my last announcement, this one is actually important! A body has been discovered in the Ultimate Survivor's lab!"

Kaede was still staring at the head. Why... Why was it so brutal? Why had he been put into pieces? Was that process started when he was alive? Kaede had all these questions, but she hated that she'd have to actually find the answers to them. Her Monopad chimed with the delivery of the file.

"That's weird," Kokichi said, obviously trying to focus on the professional approach to the situation so that he wouldn't express his shock, "That body announcement... Isn't it supposed to play when three people have seen the body?"

"That's right," Kaede said, "The announcement plays when three people, not including the initial murderer unless in a group, have seen the body... So does that mean that somebody else already. They already saw _this_ and didn't even think to mention it to anybody...?"

"You'll have to think about that during the trial," Kokichi noted, then took out his Monopad, still trying to distract himself from the brutality with investigation, "The Monopad... It doesn't have anything. It notes which injuries he has, but it's not saying what the cause or time of death are."

"That means that knowing those things would make the culprit too obvious," Kaede noted, and finally managed to move closer to the filing cabinet, going for the drawer with most of Ryoma's body in it. It was a large drawer, but this still accentuated just how small Ryoma had been. He was hardly taller than the average toddler. And now, he was dead.

Kaede looked his body over, noting the injuries. It looked like he'd been stabbed in the gut one time too, and there was a slash on his arm too. The Monopad didn't lie about that. She searched his clothing for anything that might give her any insight into why or how this happened, and came up with only one thing from his pocket.

And it was one of the keys. A key for the doors in the basement, but it was deep in his pocket. Could that have had anything to do with his death? Kaede dropped the key into her bag and took a deep breath, stepping away from the cabinet for a moment, only to return, tugging on the drawers. She pulled them open, searching for any information possible.

"Let me do that," Kokichi offered, "Half of them are probably locked, and I can get them open. You should investigate around the room."

"Right," Kaede said with a nod, stepping away to search the lab. It wasn't long before she found something that at least seemed relevant. The problem was that it was several somethings. Tossed into a corner of the room were a kitchen knife, and a meat cleaver. Kaede recognized both as being readily available in the Dining Hall, and she imagined both were _used_ , given it was difficult to stab with a cleaver and difficult to behead with a regular kitchen knife...

But which was the murder weapon? Could either of them be? Could neither of them be? Kaede stared at them on the floor, and her confidence at solving the mystery of the academy... Gave way to insecurity on this case. This was the final murder. The final murder, and she was investigating it with one of the prime suspects.

Facilitate the completion of the Killing Game through any means necessary. That was Kokichi's role in this place, he said it himself. That was something so incriminating, there was no way he was lying about it, but... The time limit wasn't up yet. Not even close. That left Kaede's two main suspects more unlikely. Angie wanted to cut it fine before taking action to avoid Kokichi taking action, and if he gave a time limit, then of course he would stick to it. She trusted him that much.

She hoped she could trust him that much, anyway. And even if he _was_ responsible, Kaede at least trusted him not to sabotage the investigation. It was genuine that he wanted the Killing Game to finish, and genuine that he would prefer if as many people survived as possible. Kaede had faith that if he did turn out to be the culprit, she'd find it out, and he'd confess in due time. He did seem to value the due process of an investigation.

"Hey, Akamatsu!" Kokichi called out from where he was, at the file cabinets, "There's something weird here..."

"Yeah?" Kaede asked, turning back to him with both of the potential murder weapons in her hands. She didn't want to put them in her bag right away, since she was carrying so much with her and didn't want to risk damaging anything else or tearing the bag by putting two different knives in it.

"Well, actually, the weird thing is that there isn't anything here," Kokichi noted, gesturing to the drawers, "I snuck in here before, and picked one of the locks, and there was something in that one... But as far as I can tell, all of these are empty."

"Do you think Hoshi noticed that you'd stolen something and hid the rest of it all?" Kaede asked, "And what was it that you took?"

"There was way too much for me to investigate everything I saw without waking him up that time, so I just took what was most interesting to me. I think that there's something about this room, that's it got all sorts of history about all the different ways that Killing Games have worked in the past. Not necessarily anything about this one, but," Kokichi shrugged, "What I took was an explanation of something called the "Neo World Program". A virtual simulation of life, accurate down to death. The purpose of using the Neo World for a Killing Game would be to revert someone's physical state to something else, or to accomplish an environment that's not possible in the real world."

"Do you think we're in a Neo World program?" Kaede asked.

"I don't know," Kokichi muttered, looking away, "This academy, well, it's completely plausible to exist in reality. It doesn't take up too much space, and it's architecturally normal. But then again," He lifted his good hand to his bad eye, "Is this really the worst thing I've ever done to myself? Here and now? It honestly doesn't feel anywhere near as recent. And if I'm remembering right, back at the Compound, Shuichi had a limp, didn't he? So it could be a Neo World Program, so that our physical states wouldn't contradict the memories we were left with..."

"Neo World Program..." Kaede trailed off, thinking, "You know, I've heard that before. The second trial-based Killing Game made use of one..."

"The second trial-based Killing Game? What other sort of Killing Game is there?" Kokichi asked.

"Ah, I don't remember that much, but..." Kaede looked up at the ceiling, "I think that the first trial-based Killing Game was actually the second Killing Game, and the second trial-based one was at least the fourth..."

"Oh," Kokichi noted, "That sounds a bit strange, somehow."

"All of these games happened within about a year of each other," Kaede noted, "The Annual Killing Games didn't actually start being annual till... I think till I would have been three, when they stopped being so frequent."

"Sounds like you're remembering more," Kokichi noted, "Which I guess is pretty good, since we've lost the encyclopedia of Killing Game information that used to be in this lab."

"I mean, that stuff has to be somewhere," Kaede said, "And I found one of the keys... In his pocket. There might be something behind those doors. Do you think we have enough keys yet?"

"Only one way to find out," Kokichi said, stepping toward the door out of the lab.


	215. Deadly Life: Day Twelve (Investigation)

When Kaede and Kokichi got to the hallway, they were confronted with four faces. Four people, the remaining four besides them who were alive. They all looked completely shocked, but Tsumugi most of all. Seeing Kaede and Kokichi there, with everybody else still next to her, that made it obvious which actual participant had been found dead.

Tsumugi turned away, covering her face in her hands, and Kaede thought about approaching her. She took a step forward, but then Kokichi took two and spoke up, "Ryoma Hoshi is dead in his Ultimate Lab. Akamatsu and I have already investigated the room, and I'd recommend not going in there. The cause of death is unclear, but we do know that if nothing else, the corpse is pretty awful."

"I understand," Miu said with a resolute nod, "You two have the lead here. What can we do to help?"

"I want you to split into teams of two," Kokichi said, taking charge of the situation and gesturing to let Kaede go comfort Tsumugi, "Iruma, you'll go with Shirogane, because Akamatsu and I still have some things we need to do. Amami and Yonaga, you'll investigate too. I want Iruma's team to focus on these," He pointed to the potential murder weapons that Kaede had set down on the floor, "Figure out where they came from, when, and who could have had them. Amami and Yonaga, I need you to look around every part of this academy that Akamatsu or I haven't checked yet. Yonaga, I think you're up to date on where that would be. There was a lot of information being stored in Hoshi's lab which isn't there anymore and I want to know where it went."

"Understood," Angie said, grabbing Rantaro's wrist and turrning around to run downstairs.

Kaede was too focused on Tsumugi to realize that she was losing any opportunity she might have had to confront Angie about the time limit problem before the trial, trying her best to comfort her girlfriend whose stepbrother had just been murdered, "Hey, Tsumugi. We'll figure out who did this, okay? And... He wouldn't want you to be too upset, you know?"

She wasn't very good at this, she realized.

"I just don't understand," Tsumugi said, obviously unphased by Kaede's inability to comfort her, "He was going to die, anyway. He was dying. Why would someone murder him? What did he ever do to deserve that?"

"To be completely honest with you," Kaede said, "I think that the fact he was dying already might be why he ended up getting murdered. I don't think it's a slight anyone had against him, even though the crime scene might make it look that way... Yonaga did say that you and I, and Hoshi, and herself, were the people she thought best fit to sacrifice themselves to end the game."

"That's a good point," Tsumugi sighed, wiping tears away from her eyes, "It's... I just... I thought, probably, that when he gave me the hat it would be the last time we were really able to speak, I did, I thought he meant that his time was up, but... To hear he's been murdered, it feels like there could have been more time, but that was stolen from us..."

"I understand," Kaede said, gently rubbing Tsumugi's back as she spoke, "But it will be okay, you know. Maybe not for a while, but if nothing else, we'll get justice for him, you know? That's why, we need to give this investigation all that we've got."

"I know," Tsumugi said, looking over to Miu, "But, why do we have to split up to do that? Can't Iruma and Ouma team up? I don't want... I'm scared, okay? And I don't want you to be alone with a suspect."

"No offense, Tsumugi, but right now, you're also a suspect," Kaede said, "I have to look at this from every angle. And the thing is, I still need Ouma's help to finish investigating the Academy."

"I guess you're right," Tsumugi said, looking away now, "Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I know that nobody here likes me very much. I have to wonder if... Ugh, it's ridiculous, but what if they're trying to hurt me by targeting people that I care about?"

"I can take care of myself," Kaede said, stepping away from Tsumugi but offering her what she hoped was a reassuring smile, "I'll see you soon, okay, Tsumugi? I won't be very long, and I will find the truth. You can believe in me to do that, can't you?"

"Of course I can," Tsumugi said, then stepped over to Miu, who had retrieved the weapons they needed to investigate, "The first place to check would be the Dining Hall, right?"

"That seems like a good idea," Miu agreed, and the pair of them went off as well, leaving Kaede alone with Kokichi once more.

"So we'll take these keys downstairs, won't we?" Kokichi offered, "Just because somebody's died... Doesn't mean we shouldn't keep investigating the big picture. Given what we've done over the last few days, I'd even say that it's kind of naive to think that this death could possibly have nothing to do with the overall mystery of this place. I think you can do it, Akamatsu. Find the culprit. Find the Mastermind."

"Do you think they're the same person?" Kaede asked.

"I couldn't possibly answer that," Kokichi said, "Because, the theory I have about who killed Hoshi is really up in the air, when I have concrete knowledge of who The Mastermind is. And I'm sure during the trial, you'll figure out what I mean when I say I have no idea if the culprit was The Mastermind or if it was somebody else, okay?"

"I'm sure I will too," Kaede said, narrowing her eyes in Kokichi's direction, "And you think opening those doors will help get the answers we need?"

"You already have all the evidence you need, to be quite honest, but more won't hurt!" Kokichi said, striding toward the stairs, "And I'm curious about what could be behing those doors too, actually. And that could be where Hoshi's whole encyclopedia of Killing Games ended up. After all, he did have one of the keys in his pocket."

"You're right," Kaede said, reaching into her bag and turning the keys they'd collected over in her palm. All the same. Plenty of them. She checked the time. She and Kokichi had only been investigating for about four hours before finding that body. It was ten in the morning. It didn't feel like four hours. It felt like an entire lifetime, searching for the final answers.

And those answers were close.

Kaede knew it.

But before she and Kokichi could make it to the next set of stairs, the world warped again.


	216. Flashback: Compound Day Forty (An Arrival)

Kaede watched Shuichi's recovery in their shared time at the Secret Compound. It wasn't miraculous and it wasn't full, but it still exceeded expectations. Shuichi was off the crutches by the time that somebody else arrived. The next person to arrive, in spite of the pre-made sign up on her door, was not Himiko Yumeno. It would be a while yet before Kaede would meet the Ultimate Tennis Pro, but it was only three weeks before the arrival of one Kiibo Idabashi.

Shuichi must have been told by somebody that there would be a new arrival, or it was just uncanny timing that he was trying his best to walk again without any outside aid when Kiibo walked in through the compound's only door. Kaede could only imagine that the way in and out was somewhere likely underneath the backyard area, but she didn't intend on looking for it. Kiibo was the first person to actually walk into the compound on his own recognizance, and not be unconscious when he came indoors.

"Hey!" Shuichi was the first to get over the shock of a sudden appearance to greet Kiibo, while Kaede and Korekiyo both watched. Rantaro and Angie were elsewhere in the building at the time, "Uh, nice to meet you. You seem pretty well put-together, are you here to bring one of us on a retrieval?"

"On a retrieval?" Kiibo asked, holding a hand to his chest, "I should hope not. I just got here. Uh, I'm Kiibo Idabashi. The Failed Ultimate Supreme Leader."

"Oh, sorry," Shuichi said, looking away sheepishly, "I thought with the suit, that you were somebody higher up..."

"How, exactly," Korekiyo piped up, having recovered from his surprise enough now, "Did you acquire a talent like that, and then _fail_ at it?"

"It's not exactly a strange idea," Kiibo said, stepping further into the room as he did, "I was called the Ultimate Supreme Leader by the Ultimate Initiative because I'd spent most of my life training to eventually enter politics and hopefully become Prime Minister someday, under the guidance of members of Future Foundation. That was the intention. Unfortunately, it seems that my continued expression of free will and slight disagreement with Future Foundation policies has robbed me of that talent. It was decided that I would be sent to participate in a Killing Game as a true test of my abilities under pressure..."

"So is Future Foundation somehow connected to the Killing Games?" Kaede asked, her curiosity piqued enough to join the conversation.

Kiibo shook his head, "No, not quite. They don't know who's behind the games, and supposedly wouldn't hesitate to put a stop to them if the headquarters of the organization responsible was located. Rather, Future Foundation does have tabs on certain known individuals involved, and knowing that retrieval for the next game was currently underway, managed to deliver a request to have me enlisted as a participant. Truth be told, though, I can't help feeling like it's just a way of getting rid of me when I stopped being exactly who they wanted me to be."

"But you were still an Ultimate," Shuichi said, furrowing his brow, "Why would they throw that away, even if you did start having differences?"

"I likely would have failed anyhow," Kiibo noted, sighing as he sat down in one of the chairs, "After all, would a world in despair elect me, even if I chose to lie? Even if I made it seem like I was never associated with the Future Foundation at all, I doubt that I could ever express enough true malice to convince despair I was fit to lead. In any case, that's enough about me. Could you tell me your names?"

"I'm Kaede Akamatsu," Kaede answered, "Ultimate Failed Detective. I was the fourth to arrive here."

"I was the Ultimate Artist," Shuichi said, clearly having trouble actually calling himself failed. Kaede didn't blame him; It wasn't like he ever stopped trying by the time _she_ found him, "And my name is Shuichi Saihara. It's nice to meet you? I mean, it's unfortunate that you have to be here, but still."

"Likewise to you," Kiibo said, then looked to Korekiyo.

"Korekiyo Shinguji," He answered at cue, "And I am the Failed Ultimate Assassin. I hope you don't have a problem with that. It may be an unfortunate talent to have, but under guidance of the Ultimate Initiative, at least I was able to kill far more despairs than innocents."

"Of course," Kiibo said, giving a short nod, "I told you, I worked with Future Foundation. If I couldn't at least stomach the idea of people being killed for the greater good, then I never would have been able to stick around for long. While I don't condone such a thing... I am also in no position to condemn it. And were it necessary, I'm sure I wouldn't hesitate to act in a similar way myself. For example, if there was to be a contained outbreak of Despair, I understand the building it occurs in being blown up. As much as it's a tragic loss of life, it's more important to protect the rest of the world wherever possible..."

"Yeah," Kaede said, sighing, "We don't want a repeat of the Tragedy, after all. The current outlook is still pretty bleak, but that was worse. So I hear, anyway. It can always be worse."

"The Tragedy..." Kiibo trailed off, sighing, "That was about twenty-five years ago, now, if I'm correct."

"I always thought it was longer," Kaede said, "Because the Killing Games are called annual, and there's been more than fifty of them, but I recently found out that The Tragedy was a lot more modern than I thought, and there were just a lot of Killing Games happening at the time."

"It's part of the Future Foundation's work, to make it seem further back. Plenty of people remember living through it, of course, but there will also be people like you who never learned about that. For a brighter future, certain history must be erased..." Kiibo looked away, crossing his arms as he spoke, "That used to be one of the things that they said a lot, before they went public. There's still old pamphlets in the archives."

"How long did the Future Foundation exist before The Tragedy, Idabashi?" Kaede asked, investigative curiosity shining through again.

"About seventy five years or so," Kiibo said, "It's over a century old, you know. They adapted to fight Despair when The Tragedy happened, but prior to that, they actually formed just after the second world war. An independent group operating under the government's nose to make sure that Japan never fell so far again. A foundation for the future of our country. Though, they never expected to need to have such an active role as they do now, in a world of Despair. Nobody could have expected that the entire world would be brought to its knees in such a way."

"We can only hope," Korekiyo said, "That something changes soon, and the equilibrium of this Hell turns the tide in our favor."


	217. Flashback: Compound Day Forty (Not Despair)

Angie and Rantaro were not made aware of Kiibo's presence until they walked into the room, and Angie immediately exclaimed with all the tact of a feral child who had just learned the words of the English language, "Who's this guy?"

"Ah, hello!" Kiibo responded with perfect tact, "I'm Kiibo Idabashi. You must be Yonaga and Rantaro. I've heard a few things about you from your friends. Ah, I'm the Failed Ultimate Supreme Leader, by the way."

"Oh, I see," Angie said, then nodded, "That makes perfect sense! Welcome to the Secret Compound, Idabashi. I hope that we can all become friends!"

"As do I," Kiibo said, "In spite of the fact that getting to know each other may eventually turn out to have been a detrimental decision, I can't quite bring myself not to do it. You all seem like lovely people."

"Ah, thank you," Rantaro said, "You seem really nice, yourself. If you don't mind me asking... What exactly did that talent entail?"

"I worked with the Future Foundation with intentions of eventually going into politics, with the intention of reclaiming the Japanese Government from its run of despairing or useless individuals. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. I'd rather not explain this whole thing over again, though," He said with a bit of a nervous chuckle, "I already went through it all with these three."

"I completely understand," Angie said, "You don't have to share how you failed or anything! I mean, Amami and I keep ours under wraps. Mostly it's just if you want people to know what happened so that they don't make other, bad assumptions or something like that."

"Understandable," Kiibo said, "But I will trust you not to make bad assumptions about me. And I'll do the same for you. Whatever you've been through or done in your lives, it's none of my business unless you want it to be. Should you wish to have someone share the burden, however, my shoulders can always carry more."

"Spoken like a real leader after all..." Angie said, then dragged Rantaro by the wrist to sit with her on one of the couches, "Well, anyway, Idabashi! What kind of things do you like to do for fun?"

"I mostly read books," Kiibo said, "A mix of genres. I like to read papers on philosophy and sociology when I get the chance, but fiction is good too. Especially fantasy. Honestly, it's lots of fun to be able to get so into a book that you feel like you're really in another world!"

"That's good to hear," Rantaro said, "I don't think you'd find any academic papers here, but there is a collection of books a few rooms over that are mostly fiction. There's not a ton of them or anything, but it should be enough to keep you entertained until we're done here... And there's a lot of television recorded, too."

"Oh!" Angie exclaimed, "That reminds me, Idabashi, we've got one rule here, okay? Not to dwell on the future. We all know what's going to happen to us eventually, but we're here to enjoy our time until then. The present and the past, that's fair game, but the future is off limits. All that would do is make us depressed!"

"I can understand that," Kiibo said, "You're right. We're all well aware what the future is going to hold for us, and there's no reason to think too hard about it. I would definitely rather focus on the time we have now. I'm not sure that even needs to be a rule! Why would any of us talk about that anyway?"

Kaede and Korekiyo exchanged an awkward look. After all, the two of them had broken that rule in private already, so it definitely didn't go without saying for them.

"Mhm," Shuichi agreed, "Usually, people say to focus on the present, and what you can accomplish in the future, but even in everyday life, I'm not actually sure about that philosophy... Because if you ignore the past, then you'll never learn from it, right? You'll just keep on making the same mistakes, because if you don't look critically at your past, you might never realize that something was a mistake..."

"You mean like how," Angie piped up, "Something bad can happen to you, but you won't know it's bad till you're older and you learn more about what sort of things are bad? And the thing is, you can never get better if you're never able to acknowledge that something bad happened to you before..."

"Yeah, kind of like that," Shuichi agreed, "Or like, when you do something that you later find out was embarrassing... It's annoying to become embarrassed about something you didn't think about at the time, but at least now you know not to do it ever again. It's kind of a trade-off, but I think it's an important one to make, right?"

"Ignoring the past is something only fools do," Korekiyo said, "At any given moment, a person exists only as the culmination of all they have done and all that has been done to them. There is no such thing as a person living only in the present, because a person in a moment with no consideration to the past is nothing. A blank slate. Time is what shapes us into who we are and it's impossible to disregard that. I wouldn't dream of it, even if I'd prefer not to think about certain things, I know I must."

"Mhm," Kaede agreed, keeping to herself the thoughts that brought up. If they were a culmination of all the time they've spent alive, then in The Killing Game, with memories removed... They'd be different people, wouldn't they? Having lost the time since their failures as Ultimates would just set them back in time, something that Kaede could handle as a result of her lack of ability to _feel_ the passage of time... But she knew they'd lose more than just that. In a Killing Game, there had to be details changed. Their traumas in a despairing world couldn't be erased, but the reason they'd endured those could, and Kaede thought... Had she been through all she had in her life, without the shadow of widespread despair to explain why that could have happened to her, she would feel pathetic. Especially among others. She would feel like there was something very wrong for all these Ultimates to have suffered if she believed in a world where half the population wasn't her enemy.

Like, why couldn't she, and all these people with such amazing talents, do better? In a world without so much despair, it would seem a disgusting coincidence for all this tragedy to have struck them, and Kaede hoped that wouldn't change the course of the game. Was it really being done right, if the participants had to have their memories modified to make it work? She didn't know. She couldn't know. Because the goal of this game was clearly not to create despair; But she had no idea what the goal actually _was_.


	218. Flashback: Compound Day Forty-Five (Kirumi.)

While Kiibo's arrival to the Secret Compound had been sudden and surprising, the next person to arrive was somehow even more so. She didn't walk in through the door or anything, but when Kaede was the first one awake all of five days later, she walked down the stairs to see a girl sitting on the third step from the bottom, a handheld gaming system holding her attention is slightly purpled, bruised hands. Kaede watched her, reading the text of the visual novel over her shoulder while she processed this, until she spoke up, "Um, hi. Are you new here?"

The girl looked up to Kaede, revealing dark circles under her eyes. She definitely looked worse for wear, and more than staying up all night playing this game would do to her, "Ah, hello. Nice to meet you, probably? I was retrieved last night, by Idabashi... Oh, I'm Kirumi Tojo. Ultimate Cosplayer. Well, I guess, Failed Ultimate Cosplayer now..."

"I see," Kaede said, "My name's Kaede Akamatsu, and I was a detective. Are you okay? You look like you could really use some sleep."

"Ah..." Kirumi lifted a hand to her cheek, looking away and mumbling, "I probably should, but I just don't want to... I'd rather just keep playing this game, you know? I'll fall asleep when I just can't stay awake anymore. This is the first chance in a while I've had to consume some more obscure media, so I'm taking it if I can."

"Oh, yeah," Kaede noted, "I guess as the Ultimate Cosplayer, you'd have to be on top of all the most popular trends in media..."

"Mhm," Kirumi said with a nod, turning her attention back to the game but continuing to speak, "It's exhausting, trying to be the first person to cosplay a newly-revealed character for something popular. I never got the time to try out any of the less-popular things that people recommended to me. I know I won't remember this, but... I think this is more relaxing than going to sleep would be."

"I see," Kaede said, climbing down to sit next to Kirumi, "Looks like you got beat up..."

"Huh?" Kirumi looked up again, then glanced at her bruised wrists and shrugged, "Oh, no, this is just normal. It's not important or anything. The reason I failed is because Despairs figured out I was considered an Ultimate, so they got into my studio and destroyed all my costumes... It's got nothing to do with anything else, and I'd prefer to keep to myself."

"That's fine," Kaede said, "As long as you're going to be okay."

"I am," Kirumi said with a nod, "I always have been, okay, in the end. And if my life's going to end soon, then I shouldn't spend it thinking about anything bad. I should be happy while I can. I should enjoy this."

"Yeah," Kaede said, "Don't let the others hear you talking like that, though. Especially not Yonaga or Idabashi. They think that saying anything about the future at all is pointless and should be avoided."

"I can see how Idabashi would think that way," Kirumi said, "For so long he focused on a bright and shining future, and now that's gone. Even if he gets through it, he'll never be the same. Thinking too hard about it would be depressing... He told me all sorts of stuff about himself when he retrieved me. I think he already considers me a friend..."

"And you don't consider him one?" Kaede asked.

"I don't know," Kirumi mumbled, "Been a while since I had an actual friend or anything like that. I think it would be kind of foolish to jump the gun and say I can be friends with someone I've just met. I don't know how to interact in a normal way."

"You don't have to interact in a normal way," Kaede said, "Not with these people, Tojo. You aren't talking to me in a normal way and I still think that I'd like to become your friend, after all. We're all Failed Ultimates, after all. None of us are in any position to judge each other. We'd rather get along and enjoy ourselves."

"Getting along is different from becoming friends," Kirumi said, "We shouldn't try to force a friendship if all we do is tolerate each other."

"That's true," Kaede said, "But I'm not just tolerating you and I hope you're not just tolerating me. If you are, then I'll leave you be."

Kirumi went quiet for a few moments, then spoke again, quietly, "No, it's fine."

"So what's your game about?" Kaede asked, leaning over to look at it again. She couldn't discern anything about the story from the snippets that she'd seen.

Kirumi tilted the console so Kaede could see it a little better, "It's a combination visual novel and puzzle game. It's really interesting, but it's kind of old now, and even when it was new it was always way more popular overseas... So I was never able to get into it before, there was no reason for me to cosplay anyone from in it. It's about escaping a sinking ship, with a weird game of doors... It's not really anything like a Killing Game, but it is kind of violent to tell you the truth. A game like this wouldn't be made today, it's too hopeful for despair but too gory for the rest of us. From a marketing standpoint."

"Yeah," Kaede said, "Something like that's just too close to reality now. But you like it anyway?"

"It's probably weird of me to like it, but yes. It's written well, it's compelling, the gameplay is good... And I can differentiate between fiction and reality. I'm not going to judge a piece of art on the way it reacts with a social climate that it was never part of," Kirumi explained, then paused a moment and muttered again, "Er, sorry, I just... Cosplay, it's a love letter to media, you know? I was always really passionate about anything I read, or played, or watched. And I guess even when I'm not planning to make any costumes, that still applies here."

"That's a really nice way of looking at it," Kaede said, "I think that's really great. Being able to be passionate about so many different things, that's kind of amazing! I don't have passion for many things, to tell the truth. I like mystery novels, because of course I would with the title I got... But nothing else, at least, not enough to actually talk much about those things."

"Have you ever played a Visual Novel?" Kirumi asked.

"I haven't actually played any video games before. Was never really in my repertoire," Kaede said, "Why?"

"I think you might like it," Kirumi said, "Solving puzzles in these sort of games is basically just collecting items then using logic to combine them the ways that make sense for whatever you're trying to do. It's another sort of investigation, you know?"

"Could I try it sometime?" Kaede asked.

"I wouldn't say I think you'd like it if I wasn't planning to let you try it, you know," Kirumi said, "I heard from Idabashi that there's a lot of TV recorded here too, so I can catch up on some of that while you borrow my console... If that's okay with you. It would be nice to have somebody to talk to about my interests, after all."

"Of course," Kaede said, "I'd be glad to."


	219. Flashback: Compound Day Fifty-Six (A Small Addition)

Kirumi was really quite reserved when she was living at the Secret Compound, nowhere near as friendly as everybody else who was there. Nonetheless, she forged strong relationships with Kaede and with Kiibo pretty soon after her arrival, though she kept to herself with the others. Kaede considered herself lucky to have been able to meet Kirumi so soon after her arrival, and get to know her where the others weren't really able to.

She did wish that Kirumi would be more receptive to the efforts that other people were clearly making to get to know her, but she'd take what she could get. Then again, it had only been a week and a half since Kirumi arrived, so maybe it would just take time. And what was notable about it being a week and a half later was that it was the day another one of the Failed Ultimates arrived to the compound.

This time, it wasn't as much of a surprise. Kaede first saw the new girl at a completely reasonable hour, and she'd already heard from Rantaro, who had helped to retrieve her, that there was somebody new. When Kaede first saw her, it was after breakfast, and she was asleep on one of the couches in the lounge. Curled up, looking incredibly small.

No, really. She looked like a child for one thing, and then she was just small for how she was sleeping, balled up in the corner of what was definitely an especially large couch. Kaede somehow knew her name without even finding it out, probably because she'd seen the girl on TV, long before she'd actually been marked an Ultimate. Himiko Yumeno. A tennis prodigy.

And, it seemed now, the Ultimate Tennis Prodigy. By seeing the name on the door, Kaede hadn't quite made the connection when all she saw was a name on a door, but this proved it. Kaede didn't want to wake her, but she looked her over, noticing that this sleep didn't seem completely natural. It seemed like absolute, overwhelming exhaustion, like she'd passed out.

It was almost like, in the process of retrieving her, no drugs would even have been needed to make sure she wasn't awake to see where they ended up. On closer examination, Kaede couldn't find any evidence than Himiko _had_ been drugged, so she assumed that she'd been unconscious for a while.

Kaede sat down on the couch, a fair distance from where Himiko was sleeping, but close enough that she'd be able to notice when the small girl awoke. She pulled out the handheld console that Kirumi was letting her borrow, and loaded her save file on the visual novel. Kirumi had given it to her the previous day, having finished all three games in the series. Kaede was enjoying it so far, especially the puzzle gameplay.

A few hours later, according to the clock on the handheld system, Himiko started to wake up, sitting up just a little from where she sat as she mumbled, "Huh...? Where am I?"

"Hi, Yumeno," Kaede said, looking to her just as soon as she'd started to awaken, "You're at the Secret Compound. Didn't somebody explain this to you?"

"No..." Himiko said, furrowing her brow with a deep frown, "The last thing I remember happening is, my coach... He was always pushing me way too hard but he did something different, something really bad, and it was... A big pain."

"Well," Kaede said, "You're in the Secret Compound now. You're considered a Failed Ultimate, and in a few months, you're going to have a portion of your memories erased, and you'll participate in the Annual Killing Game. Same as everybody here."

"That's annoying," Himiko said, sitting up more and examining her own arms and legs, "I think my coach tried to kill me. Why didn't I just die that way? Now I gotta deal with a Killing Game... I hate this."

"It is pretty bad, huh?" Kaede said, putting the game console back down beside her on the couch, "But think of it this way, now you get to have some time with people like you. Even if you'll forget it, you get the chance to be happy and make friends."

Himiko turned, glaring at Kaede, "That doesn't sound like a bright side at all!"

"Hey, Akamatsu!" Kiibo called out from the other room, "Who are you talking to?"

"The new girl, Yumeno!" Kaede called back, "She woke up!"

"Ugh..." Himiko groaned, looking away, " _He_ sounds annoying."

"Nice to meet you, Yumeno," Kiibo said the moment he stepped into the room, completely ignoring the insult that he definitely would have heard, "You were the Tennis Pro, right? There is a backyard here, you might like it."

"I'm not a fan of many things," Himiko mumbled, "I don't care about the outdoors. Why do I gotta be here? Being an Ultimate was enough of an inconvenience and now this has to happen. I don't wanna stick around just to go in some game."

"Hey, we've got a house rule around here," Kiibo said, "We don't talk about the future, right? We talk about the past and the present, and we do our best to get along and become friends with each other."

"Why would I wanna do that?" Himiko asked, "That sounds dumb. I can't see any reason that I should follow that rule or try to be friends with any of you!"

"W-Well," Kiibo seemed taken aback by Himiko's words, and of course he would be. He wasn't used to socializing with people his own age, and so far, he'd only encountered friendly people with whom his lack of experience wasn't a big deal or anything, "Because this is the time we have left, and we may as well spend it as well as we possibly can."

"It's such a pain to try and make the most of the time I have left when I really should have just died when my coach tried murdering me!" Himiko snapped back, balling her hands into fists as she stood up from the couch, "Isn't there anywhere I can just go to be alone??"

"I'm not sure we should leave you alone with an attitude like that!" Kiibo exclaimed.

"It's not like I'll do anything, stupid," Himiko said, rolling her eyes, "I'm _gonna_ do the Killing Game, since my life stupidly got saved. Dying any other way is just too much of a pain!"

"You've got a room upstairs," Kaede said quietly from where she still sad on the couch, keeping her voice gentle. Himiko didn't need resistance right now, that much was obvious, "It has your name on the door. You can go ahead upstairs."

"...Thank you," Himiko said, covering her face with one hand as she went to the stairs, leaving Kaede and Kiibo in the lounge by themselves.


	220. Deadly Life: Day Twelve (Disgracing The Dead)

Kaede woke up back in The Killing Game. This time, she didn't collapse when the memories hit her, and when she came back she just resumed walking. Kokichi did the same, but Kaede spoke up about the memories she'd received, "I remembered... More about the days when Tojo, Idabashi, and Yumeno arrived. Respectively. They didn't arrive all at once or anything."

"I see," Kokichi said, "I just remembered some miscellaneous stuff... Nothing specific. Maybe because I arrived later than you did."

"That might be it, yeah," Kaede said, "It's weird, though. In those memories, I don't even know if I'm completely acting like myself. I told Tojo that as failed Ultimates, we had no right to judge each other for anything at all. I mean... I am forgiving. Maybe too forgiving. But I still think that I might have second thoughts about a person."

"Well, as far as I can remember," Kokichi said, "Angie and Idabashi kind of took charge of making it a positive environment. Like, sickly positive even! And that's kind of, maybe, the reason? You could have just been following their rules. Their rules are why I had kind of a hard time when I first got there, even with Shuichi sticking up for me. I don't have a lot of capacity for optimism, you know."

"Yumeno didn't either," Kaede said, "She was all freaked out about the rule actually."

"That's understandable."

“It is,” Kaede agreed, “After all, it kind of went against everything that she stood for at the time. I guess she’s another example, of aspects of her personality carrying through having her memories erased. She was still, well, Yumeno, but she wasn’t as abrasive…”

"I dunno about that," Kokichi said, "I think that if you remember her being abrasive, then it wasn't part of who she was, it was part of her failure. I mean, even if her coach pushed her too hard, she still trusted him. He was the one who protected her, an Ultimate in public, from Despair. I can't say I understand how she was feeling, because I've never been betrayed like that. Nobody who hurt me ever made any pretenses of planning to do anything else. But I still think, it makes _sense_ if she would be angry at the world for letting her live long enough to live with the knowledge of what happened to her."

"I just can't remember what happened to help her get over it," Kaede said, "Because she definitely didn't stay angry, and the way she was acting, I don't think it could have just been time."

"If you don't remember that yet, then it's probably something you'll be remembering later," Kokichi said, "Or, you just never knew. That's possible, right?"

"I guess so," Kaede agreed as they went down the next set of stairs, "Sure would be nice to have some warning, before the light hit us again... Do you think that Iruma just got her second memory that thing had to give her?"

"Maybe," Kokichi said, then frowned, "I feel kind of bad, I didn't take the opportunity to blast everybody else while I was at it Now, only half of us are going to be remembering these things..."

"Is it really half?" Kaede asked, "The Mastermind remembers, right?"

"Maybe it's only half, maybe it's more than half," Kokichi said, "I dunno how much The Mastermind actually remembers for one thing. For another thing, though! The Mastermind could still be Iruma anyway. That's still a possibility to keep it halfway too. Or it's more. That's up to you to figure out! At least now you know it wasn't Hoshi. If he had been The Mastermind, then the game would be over. That's how it works, you know."

"I'm well aware," Kaede said, "It would be over if Hoshi had been The Mastermind, but I sort of already knew that he wasn't. He definitely wasn't lying about being the Ultimate Survivor. And if I know anything about Killing Games of the past, The Mastermind usually doesn't survive. And even if they did, I doubt that they would change the name of their talent."

"But it _would_ have explained how Shirogane was still alive," Kokichi noted, then laughed a bit, "Though, honestly, it was kind of Hoshi's fault that Shirogane had the idea of killing Tojo in the first place!"

"What? No it wasn't, what are you talking about?" Kaede asked, grabbing at the beanie she wore which had once been his, "Hoshi wouldn't do that to Tsumugi..."

"Wouldn't he, though?" Kokichi asked, "As the Ultimate Survivor... He is the one who told her that if she killed somebody, she might be executed instead of the first killer. I still don't know if I believe that she thought that was you. But there is something else, you know! By the time that happened, we know... Monokuma was already finding ways to prevent people from committing suicide."

"Ouma, what are you trying to say?" Kaede asked.

"I don't know if she did it for you. I don't know if she did it for revenge. I don't know if she did it because it was the only way to die," Kokichi explained, "Or, if it was something else. But there's one thing I do know, and I've seen her in a different light than you ever have. She tried to convince me to get high with her. She's a disaster."

"I know," Kaede said, "But she's my disaster. I know I'll pay for it. I'm going to, eventually, I can't keep dodging consequences forever. But... We aren't good people, here. I guess that. Maybe Hoshi would do something like that. Like giving Tsumugi the idea of killing someone. She practically said as much during the trial but, I always felt as if... Hoshi would tell her that information without the expectation she'd do anything with it."

"Maybe that's true," Kokichi said, "But didn't he acknowledge that Shirogane is a bad person? Is it possible at all, that he could have said something like that to her and thought there was no way that a bad person wouldn't do something with that info? I can't imagine why he would want to get her to do something like that. But he's a smart guy. He had to have thought through the implications."

"I guess you're right," Kaede said, staring at the floor as she grabbed onto the railing on the side of the wall for the stairs down into the basement, "But, I can't imagine why... He would do that."

"The role of the Ultimate Survivor," Kokichi said, "Is right there in the Survival Perk on his Monopad, you know. No memory required for him to be aware of it. The role is to _help_ Ultimate Judgment. It's not a role that's meant to survive. It's a role that's meant to facilitate the goal of the Killing Game. Not the completion, the goal. And if the Mastermind judged Shirogane to be worthy of death, Hoshi may have needed to put his feelings aside to help accomplish that goal. Only, it backfired. Shirogane lived."

"So why is Hoshi dead now, and not Shirogane?" Kaede asked.

"I dunno. But, she might be," Kokichi said, "She could be the culprit after all."


	221. Deadly Life: Day Twelve (Useless)

"You've got a good point," Kaede said, "And I do have to consider that it could be her. That would be really awful for me, but I can't turn a blind eye to the truth."

"Good to know that you've got your priorities at least a little bit straight," Kokichi said, and the pair of them had reached the library. They removed the cover on the ladder, and both of them climbed down into the deep basement, to the doors. The ones that Kaede had opened earlier were still open.

Without another word, Kaede approached the doors, reaching into her bag for all of them. One at a time, she got the doors open, until she had just one key left. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for whatever could lie beyond it, or for disappointment if she turned out to not have enough keys for all of this. Still, she thought, they were quite a lot of keys. She had to have found them all by now.

She needed to find the truth that lay beyond. She put the key in the lock, turned it, and stepped back as it opened. It didn't reveal another door. It revealed a room. It was an awfully underwhelming room for the trouble it took to get there. Small, with one bed in the corner. There was a circle of rocks in the center of the room, and a pile of sticks in one corner that looked like they'd been taken out of Maki's lab.

It was just some quarters, and Kaede was pretty sure that she knew who they belonged to. J had been staying here, and keeping warm by burning wood cut from trees in Maki's lab. She stepped further inside, looking around. Kokichi immediately crouched to look under the bed, then stood up again, "It's useless."

"It can't be useless," Kaede said, "It was so much trouble to get here, there has to be something in here. Something that J wanted to keep hidden from Monokuma, since he put one of the keys in that pool..."

"There probably was something here, before," Kokichi said, "But it wasn't meant for us anymore. So now it's gone. J wanted to make it hard for us to get the keys because he knew that whatever evidence was here... Wasn't what we needed. I'm not sure why it's all gone, though."

"Do you think Motherkuma could have done it, even without access to this room?" Kaede asked, "It was evidence saying that Despair was behind this. But we know that's not true by now."

"Maybe," Kokichi offered, "J was a plant! Meant to take on the role of The Mastermind, working for Despair, but everything just went wrong! It all went so fucking wrong, I know it did. This game really is broken."

"I know it is," Kaede said, "Monokuma told me as much, and I don't know why, but I do trust it right now. It _and_ Motherkuma. After all, they're working with the renegade Mastermind, not the organization in charge of the Killing Games in general. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all."

"That's a good point!" Kokichi agreed, "That organization definitely is a _bigger_ enemy than Ultimate Judgment, even though it's totally that person's fault that everything bad in this place happened to us! After all, if not for the organization, we wouldn't have ended up in this place where The Mastermind could hurt us. It's a hierarchy of awfulness!"

"I guess that it is, yeah," Kaede said, giving a nod, "It's all unforgivable, but... if The Mastermind wants to help us now, to stop the people who set all this in motion, then that's okay, isn't it? You can look past a person's flaws for their usefulness, after all..."

"You sure can!" Kokichi exclaimed, "After all, that's how you're still standing, I bet! If you weren't so useful, then lots of people would hate you a lot more. Imagine if you did all the same non-investigation things, but your talent was anything other than the one that you've got."

"I know," Kaede said, "That's true, isn't it? My continued existence hinges on the fact that I can find the truth, because all of my bad decisions have definitely made me into somebody who shouldn't still be here."

"You can say that again," Kokichi said, then flashed her a grin, "I'd still like you, though! You'd be my friend, Akamatsu, even if you had the most worthless talent in the world and made all of these mistakes. Cause I don't care about those mistakes, I care about you. And I believe in the power of atonement! The only way I'd hate you is if you killed somebody yourself."

"So you hate Shirogane?" Kaede asked.

"When have I ever," Kokichi said, "Given any indication... That I didn't hate her? I mean, since finding out that she's a dirty murderer and all!"

"I guess you didn't," Kaede said, "But you don't hold it against me, for still loving her?"

"Of course not," Kokichi said, "Cause I know you also hate her! No matter what you say or do, that's still the truth, and it would take a lot to change your mind. I guess only time will tell... But if you ever stop hating her, I trust you enough to know it will have been cause she earned it!"

"Cause she earned it," Kaede agreed, "That's right. And then I'll have to become a good person again too. Make up for all the time I spent waiting for her to earn it... No matter what ends up happening."

"Good to know that you've got a solid grasp on your moral compass, finally," Kokichi said, "Though that's not enough to redeem you just yet."

"I know," Kaede said, then paused, glancing at Kokichi as his eyes seemed to suddenly glaze over. She stared for a moment before there was a pounding in her own head, a familiar pounding that she'd felt earlier in this investigation plenty of times over.

The world warped-


	222. Deadly Life: Day Twelve (Empty Light)

"So..." Kokichi mumbled, a few seconds later, "What did you remember this time?"

"I... Didn't," Kaede said, "I felt it. The world, warping, like memories were about to be returned, but I didn't remember anything. That's weird. I was kind of expecting to remember more about when I met Momota."

"Oh. Maybe the differences between the memories it wanted to give us were too big this time around," Kokichi said, "But my memory was really weird and small. It was a memory that... You, and Shinguji, and Tojo, and a few others, got called into another room. And the door was locked behind you. And I don't know... What else happened after that. I think it had something to do with the Killing Game, though. In the end."

"Something to do with the game?" Kaede asked, "Why would you think that?"

"Because of how secretive it is," Kokichi said, "And the people who went in there. No offense to you, Akamatsu, but it was definitely a certain type of person. The type of person who broke the house rule of not talking about the shitty future."

"How did you know I-" Kaede started.

"Just cause I wasn't ever there when you did it, it was pretty obvious. I could tell within two weeks of knowing all of you. The ones who actually decided not to dwell on the fact we'd be entering a Killing Game carried themselves differently than the ones who were definitely thinking about it," Kokichi explained, "I wish you had been able to just let it be, Akamatsu. You would have been happier."

"I probably would have," Kaede said, "But as the Ultimate Detective, I couldn't just put it out of my mind. I need to be able to think and get a grasp on things, you know?"

"I know that's true," Kokichi said, "But it doesn't matter, okay? I can still wish it had been different. I can still wish you could have been happier before."

"Thank you..." Kaede trailed off, then turned around, "This, coming down here... Was a waste of time, wasn't it?"

"Maybe it was," Kokichi said, "Or maybe it wasn't. I don't know. It's still possible we learned something by coming here that we wouldn't know otherwise, and we just don't realize it yet. We definitely learned stuff while collecting the keys, though! And maybe that was the point all along. But I mean, like I said. You already have all the information that you'd need to solve all these mysteries. You just gotta put it together."

"You keep saying that, but I really don't feel like I have that information," Kaede said, "Isn't there anywhere left to look?"

 

“If there is, then I don’t know about it,” Kokichi said, “And I guess, I just think you have everything you need to figure it out, because I already have the answers. As much of the answers as I can have, anyway. When it comes to who’s the culprit of this case, though… Yeah, some more evidence could turn out pretty useful. I just don’t think there _is_ any more evidence. Hoshi’s death was disgusting, but not complicated.”

“You’re right about that,” Kaede said, “It wasn’t a complicated murder. But somehow, I get the feeling that it has to be a little more complicated than it seems on the surface. It can’t _just_ be that he was stabbed then beheaded. And it can’t be as simple as who wasn’t accounted for, whatever his time of death was.”

“Those are all definitely things to think about,” Kokichi agreed, “During the trial, at least.”

“The trial should probably be soon,” Kaede said, “If I’m not mistaken about how much time has passed, that is…”

“No, you’re right,” Kokichi said, “It should be soon. It’s important that it’s soon, actually! This game will come to an end.”

“It will come to an end,” Kaede said, “And then we’ll find out what horrors await us on the other side of the Killing Game. We know it can’t be over. You do know that, right?”

“Of course it can’t be over,” Kokichi said, “Would you want it to be? The Killing Game, it just stretches out for all time. Even when it stops, we’ll carry it with us. It made us stronger. As awful as it is, would you want to leave it behind completely? Would you want to block it out, or forget it?”

"No, I want to remember this," Kaede said, "And I know, in all of the future, what happened here is going to change who I am as a person. That's undeniable. And after struggling through this... We'll probably struggle again. We'll probably have to struggle with something else. But we'll be strong enough to make it, since we've been through this."

“If everything just went okay,” Kokichi said, “After this, then it would almost be disappointing, right? What’s the use of becoming a stronger person if you don’t end up with any application for that strength? Not to mention, most Despairs already think we’re dead. Sending us back into the world without a second thought would just be irresponsible.”

"That's true," Kaede said, "And I don't think I've... ever heard anything, about an Ultimate who was in the Killing Game continuing to operate in the outside world. I mean... J was in a Killing Game, and he ended up working for the people who organized this. Do you think they're going to ask us to work with them?"

"Probably," Kokichi said, "I also doubt that we'll actually be given much avenue to refuse. It'll probably boil down to work with them, or do nothing at all in another Secret Compound. Probably one a lot less nice than the one we were in before. Assuming they wouldn't just kill us for refusing."

"I don't want to work with them," Kaede said, "But I also don't want to die."

"Well," Kokichi said, shrugging, "We'll figure it out, Akamatsu. When we get out there..."

"You are coming with me, right?" Kaede asked.

"Of course I am," Kokichi said, "Assuming that it's possible for us to both live through this, I will."

"Did you kill Hoshi, Ouma?" Kaede asked.

"...I don't know," Kokichi said, and it was completely genuine, "I guess we'll find that out during the trial though, won't we?"

"I guess so," Kaede agreed, then paused as she heard the PA system come to life.

"Okay everybody, investigation time's up! Time for the start of this Killing Game's fifth trial! And given certain circumstances, this will additionally serve as the Final Trial. Immediately after the culprit is found, we'll begin Mister Monokuma's Trial! All previously added rules will be lifted, and you'll have the opportunity to answer all the questions you've still got!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have been able to tell by that last line from Monokuma, this fic is ~drawing to a close~. And so I'll say, get those Mastermind Theories in while you've still got the chance...


	223. Deadly Life: Day Twelve (Regroup)

Kaede paused, then started walking out of what had once been J's room within this academy, speaking as she went, "Evidently, Monokuma knows that we've been investigating everything."

"But you pretty much knew that the Academy was going to end up having its own trial. It's just more convenient, that we get to do that right away after we figure out who killed Hoshi," Kokichi said, "Are you ready?"

"I really don't feel like I'm ready," Kaede said, "What happens if I'm wrong?"

"Wrong about the Academy? I'll help you," Kokichi said, "Probably. Wrong about who killed Hoshi, then, well, we're dead anyway."

"Good point," Kaede said, "But what am I supposed to do about the academy if it turns out that you're the one who killed Hoshi?"

"Then I guess you'd be on your own!" Kokichi said, "Which, I know you can do, if it comes to that. Like I said, you have all the information. Once you've got it going in a trial, then I know that you'll put it together."

"You say that," Kaede said, "But you know, I went from being really confident in my abilities, to having all this doubt. It's not about the academy, not really. I can figure that out. I'm still confident. I just... don't know about the first case. I really feel like there isn't enough here."

"It's better than the last case, when there wasn't anything," Kokichi said, "If I thought you couldn't do it, then I'd take over again! But I'm not doing that."

"Well, okay," Kaede said, "I'll believe in the you that believes in me, and all."

Shortly after, the pair of them arrived back to the shrine to go down to the courtroom. Rantaro and Angie had already arrived again, but Tsumugi and Miu were nowhere to be seen yet. While waiting, Kaede approached those two, "Did you find it? The information that was in Hoshi's lab?"

"Nowhere," Rantaro said, "It's almost like it just vanished. No signs of where it could have all ended up."

"We didn't even see any signs of it downstairs," Kaede said, "The fire pit didn't look like anything had been recently burned either..." She noted, with a short nod in Kokichi's direction to explain most easily that she was referring to something that they'd come across in their investigation together.

"I wonder if the fact that it just disappeared," Rantaro said, "Is more telling than the actual information would have been."

"What do you mean?" Kaede asked.

"If it was supposedly information about old Killing Games," Angie said, "Maybe it got hidden because it's not relevant anymore. Red herrings are lame, you know!"

"Oh yeah," Kokichi said, "Maybe all that info was kind of wrong, and now that the game's broken so bad, finding that out would just break it more!"

"That makes sense," Rantaro said, "So what did you find?"

"We found the place where J was probably living within the Academy, before he died," Kaede explained, "Uh, if any of you don't know, that was the name of the non-participant who got killed in Shinguji's lab. Anyway, there wasn't anything useful down there... Which is disappointing."

"Well, it's probably not necessary anyhow," Rantaro noted, "I mean, you've been investigating for a while now. And whatever was down there wouldn't have given any insight into Hoshi's death, just the academy, probably. If anything had been there."

"Right," Kaede said, "I think that if I'm able to figure out what the time of death was, I should be able to know who did it, regarding Hoshi. Even if I just use a lack of alibi as a jumping-off point."

"How are you gonna figure that out?" Angie asked, "Sure would be nice if there was a Killing Game with the Ultimate M.E. or something!"

"I really should have trained myself in basic medical examination at some point in my life, yeah, but I didn't get quite that far..." Kaede trailed off, "But I know that I can do it. I can find the answers that we need."

"I believe in you," Angie said, "I know everyone here does. You won't quit till you find the truth! That's just who you are and who you've always been, so I know that's who you'll always be!"

"Ah, thank you, Angie," Kaede said with a firm nod, then turned back to the door as she heard it open. Tsumugi and Miu, as expected, walked in. Kaede greeted them, "Hey! What did you figure out about the weapons?"

"Well," Miu said, "They definitely came from the Dining Hall, which leaves a really small window when someone could actually pick them up. I can't honestly remember if they were already missing when Amami and I made dinner, but they only could have been grabbed before we did that, or after you and Ouma started investigating again first thing this morning."

"Or it was you or Amami who took it, while you were cooking," Kaede said, "Sorry, but you know, I have to consider it."

"I know," Miu said, bowing her head a bit, "And that's very admirable, Mistress Akamatsu!"

"Anyway," Tsumugi said, "Remember when you taught me to use the stuff in your lab? There wasn't exactly a lot that stuff can figure out, sure, you told me as much... But I was actually able to figure out that there were two different peoples' blood on the first knife, but not the cleaver. That's something to consider, right?"

"It is," Kaede said, "Thank you, Tsumugi. That really helps!"

"I'm glad that it does," Tsumugi said, then nodded toward the elevator, "Well... We should get this started, shouldn't we? I need to know who killed him. And why."

"I understand," Kaede said, then turned and walked toward the elevator. Everybody else followed after her, silent as they all piled in. There were six of them.

Soon there would be five. There would be five, and then those five would leave this place. Kaede wanted to think that, because it was better than thinking, soon there would be one. And only one would get out. And would get away with murder. Get away with killing Ryoma. Ryoma, of all people. He never hurt anyone, if Kaede decided to believe he didn't know what he was doing when he told Tsumugi the information that made her want to kill.

And he was dying anyway. Kaede guessed that could be a reason _why_ to kill him, but it didn't explain the brutality of the act. Nothing could explain that, Kaede decided. Even if she figured out a reason, nothing could really explain how somebody thought that beheading someone was a good choice to make.

But she had time to figure all of this out.

The trial was about to begin.


	224. Fifth Trial (Alibi?)

"Welcome to the fifth and final trial! First item on the ledger for today is the case of Ryoma Hoshi's murder!" Monokuma announced as everybody filed into the courtroom, "I know you're all super excited for the second half of the trial, but we gotta get this out of the way first!"

"Thanks, Monokuma," Kaede said, holding her Monopad in front of her as she explained the situation, "At approximately 1100 this morning Ryoma Hoshi was found dead in his own lab. His head was separated from his body. The murder weapon seems to be a kitchen knife, a cleaver, or both. Both were recovered from the scene."

"After being given them," Tsumugi spoke up, "Iruma and I both investigated their origin and other aspects. They were certainly from the dining hall, and I used equipment in Akamatsu's lab to find out that not the cleaver, but the kitchen knife, had two different peoples' blood on it. I couldn't learn what the blood type was, but I did learn that they were different."

"I see..." Rantaro said, "So does that mean that somebody besides Hoshi was injured? Are the blood types the same between one on the kitchen knife and on the cleaver?"

"Yes," Tsumugi said, "One of the knife's blood types was the same as on the cleaver, so I can only assume that was Hoshi's."

"The only one of us," Kaede said, "According to the Monopad, who has the same blood type as Hoshi, is Amami. That means that the other blood on the kitchen knife could belong to any one of us but him."

"And it technically means," Rantaro said, "The blood on either of those weapons could be mine, and not Hoshi's after all, doesn't it? But I haven't been injured recently."

"I'll take you at your word," Kaede said, "I'd be able to tell if you were lying, and besides. Hoshi's injuries line up with both weapons. So if we assume that the other blood on the knife belongs to the culprit, then that clears your name."

"Thanks!" Rantaro said, then scratched his cheek and looked away, "But, you know, couldn't the other blood on the knife just be somebody else who was there at the time? I could still be the culprit yet, by that standard, you know. But if I think about it, the knives were already missing by the time Iruma and I got to the kitchen."

"I don't remember that," Miu said, "So I can't back you up on that. But, I guess that doesn't really give _anyone_ an alibi. They could have gone missing before the last trial, after all. But I guess we do know now that Hoshi could have been killed before the Dining Hall opened again this morning."

"All of us were generally paired up with at least one other person, or at least in the same vicinity as others through most of the night," Tsumugi said, "I know that I was always accounted for, for sure."

"The Monokuma Sentry has also reported," Monokuma said, "That Shirogane did not illegally leave Akamatsu's dorm room until the body announcement after entering. This is just a fact that you set yourselves up to hear about, I'm not trying to interfere!"

"I have a consistent alibi," Tsumugi said, "And no motive to kill Ryoma, either. I can't imagine why anybody would, but I especially don't."

"The motive part is true," Miu said, "But, when it comes to alibis, then none of us are safe... Right? If somebody else's blood is on the knife and it _isn't_ the culprit's, then that means any group of two could have been involved, right? So an alibi would take three people together, or more. And I don't think we actually had that especially often."

"But that's just if the blood isn't the culprit's," Rantaro said, "And eliminating the possibility of an alibi like that makes this case much harder to get a handle on, right?"

"It does," Kaede said, "But we can at least figure out if there's anybody who was never left alone with only one other person... Or when those times were."

"Well, most of the time we were in pairs," Miu said, "I think the only times there were three of us in one place, were when we were all at the picnic tables, when you took Angie to investigate with you and Shirogane, and when I was in the library with Ouma and Amami."

"You're right about that much," Kaede said, "We were mostly in pairs. The only time anyone was really alone was while you were investigating with me. Shirogane and Amami are accounted for given the time it had to take for them to do what they were doing in that time. Ouma and Angie weren't really accounted for in that time period, but I think they both went to different places. And, well, you and Amami were each alone for a bit after you finished making dinner."

"And when I heard the announcement about the non-participant's death," Miu added, "I think I was the only one who woke up then."

"Kokichi and I definitely went different places," Angie added in, "He went to start organizing in the library, and I went to try talking to Motherkuma."

"Motherkuma?" Miu asked.

"That's the leader of the Monokumas," Kaede explained, "In a room that's probably a bit above this courtroom. It's in the room that Ouma tried to hide Gokuhara in before he went down to the Escape Tunnel."

"Oh, I see," Miu said, "Why were you talking to it, Yonaga?"

"I was trying to reason with it," Angie said, "About finishing this game. Making it stop early, but it wouldn't cooperate with me. Do you think that could have been because at the time I talked to it, Hoshi was already dead, so the game would be ending soon anyway?"

"That's possible," Kokichi said, "But you do realize that pointing it towards earlier makes it harder to figure out who it could have been? If it was before that point when some of us actually spent some time alone and unaccounted for... Knowing that Iruma and Amami went straight to the dining hall, that casts the most suspicion on you or I... Or on Shirogane and Akamatsu as a team."

"But what if Iruma and Amami didn't go straight to the dining hall after all?" Angie asked, "If it was a pair, then they're still a perfectly viable one."

"Mm..." Kaede mumbled, then took a deep breath before she spoke again, "You know, actually. There's something I just realized. The body discovery announcement sounded when Ouma and I walked into the room. The rules of a body discovery are that it will sound after three non-killer individuals, or a group including the killer of three or more people, find the body... Or a combination of the above, ie a group of three innocents... Or one innocent, and then a group of two that might include the culprit. So it has to be a pair who was there in the room when Hoshi was killed. That, or somebody else saw the body after and failed to report it."


	225. Fifth Trial (The Wound)

"So you mean to say," Miu said, "That of the people in this courtroom... Of the six of us, there are two people who already know who the culprit is? And that's two people who don't want us to find out who it is..."

"Not necessarily," Kaede said, "If the person whose blood is on that knife isn't the culprits, then there might be something more going on than having an accomplice. Or, you know, someone could have just stumbled upon the body and not said anything. So if that's the case, please speak up. But I'll be able to tell if you're lying."

"Aw, you got me, Akamatsu!" Kokichi exclaimed, "I did do that!"

"You're definitely lying," Kaede said.

"Wow! Yeah guys, she can definitely tell! Cause I know I'm definitely the best liar here. Well, okay, I'll defer second best. There is one person who's better at lying than me!" He laughed a bit, tapping at the podium he was standing behind, "Anyway, we'll run with the idea that it had to be a pair of people. The only pair who could have gotten to the dining hall before it closed, to take the knives... Would be Angie and me, right after the trial, or Iruma and Amami while they made dinner."

"Or the knives could have been taken before the last trial," Kaede reminded, "In which case, absolutely anybody could have. Also, just because two people were in the room doesn't mean they both took the knives. Or that it was both members of a pair with access. It could have been either one of the people from each of those pairs, with each other, you know?"

"That sure is a rough way of phrasing it but yeah for sure," Kokichi noted, "I could have worked with Amami, or Angie could work with Iruma... If it even was a matter of working together and not something completely different! I guess this clears you and Shirogane, though, assuming the knives weren't taken before the trial."

"If the knives were taken before the trial, though," Rantaro said, "Then, sorry to say, but Akamatsu, you and Shirogane have the most opportunity of anyone. You said you were up in Chabashira's lab before you came and met me in Momota's lab, and that's right across the hall from Hoshi's... And saying that you used the equipment there could be good cover for a reason you'd be out of breath."

"But we'd never do something like that!" Tsumugi protested, "Akamatsu and I were together almost the entire time, and neither of us were ever unaccounted for, even with somebody else! We already determined I had no sort of motive or anything, so why would we even be suspects?"

"Akamatsu was unaccounted for, for hours," Rantaro said, "With Ouma. But are we still working off the theory that Hoshi was already dead when Angie tried to talk to Motherkuma?"

"If he _was_ dead by then, then it seems like..." Kaede trailed off, "There are only four people who _actually_ had the opportunity. After all, Shirogane and I went straight upstairs in our investigation. It was the first place we went, and we went up just a little while after Hoshi had. He was probably there for about five minutes before we went upstairs. We watched Amami and Iruma walk into the dining hall. After that point, Shirogane and I would have noticed anyone coming upstairs."

"Amami or Iruma couldn't have gotten upstairs, killed Hoshi, and gotten back to where we found them in the time that we spent inside Chabashira's lab," Tsumugi said, "So, you're right. It does point pretty strongly towards Kaede and me, but let's put that aside for a minute. For somebody to make it _past_ us then they would have had to be inside Hoshi's lab before we got upstairs, then left shortly after we entered Chabashira's lab."

"There are only two people who could pull that off," Kaede said, "And they had the opportunity to get the weapons, too. The two people... Who took the first elevator up from the trial."

"Aww, come on, Akamatsu!" Kokichi said, leaning on the podium with a grin on his face like he didn't just become a prime suspect, "You'd really suspect me? I still think that it could have been you and Shirogane, you know!"

"I would suspect you," Kaede said, "Because it's important. It's important that I put my feelings aside and find the truth. I wouldn't hesitate to suspect Tsumugi... If there was any chance she could have actually done it. But from where I stand, it's either us, or you and Angie. And I know what I have and haven't done."

"Do you now?" Kokichi taunted, "Or are you just saying that now, huh? You and your criminal girlfriend, teaming up to kill her stepbrother and taking his hat as a trophy... Why would you do something so awful, Akamatsu?"

"I wouldn't do something so awful!" Kaede protested, "The hat was a gift that Hoshi gave to Tsumugi. And she decided that I should wear it, as motivation for her to be a better person! I wouldn't do something like that, never!"

"And yet you'll say that Kokichi and me, would do something so awful?" Angie asked, "Beheading someone, possibly while he was still alive? That's disgusting, and it's disgusting that you'd think either of us would do something like that!"

"It's easy enough to figure out who was actually there, though," Kaede snapped, hitting her palm against the podium in front of her, "We just need to figure out which one of us is injured! Whose blood is on the knife besides Hoshi's! We'll find out who was in that room... And that it's not me or Tsumugi."

"Clever, clever," Kokichi said, "But how exactly do you intend on figuring that out, Akamatsu? It isn't as if you can just get everybody to undress in the courtroom! Clearly, whoever did get injured has done a fine job of hiding it at this point. Likely under their clothes. And I know you're a pretty perverted chick, but you really wanna ask this group of people to strip down for some evidence that won't even _really_ solve the case?"

"That's a good point," Miu said, "I think... I'm probably the only one here who'd be willing to do that, and I'm not even a suspect anymore!"

"You're not the only one," Kaede said, grimacing as she spoke, "Ouma... Angie... Knowing what you've been through, of course I'd never ask you to undress to prove my suspicions. But I can do it, to prove that I _don't_ have any incriminating injuries..."

Tsumugi stayed quiet for a minute, but spoke up reluctantly, scowling just as much as Kaede was, speaking through gritted teeth, "I can too... If it's to clear our names, if I have to, then I guess..."

"Hey now!" Monokuma interrupted, "Blood and gore and violence is all well and good, but we can't just show reluctant half-naked teenagers on television! Figure out some other way to prove it, come on! Don't degrade yourselves like that!"


	226. Fifth Trial (The Impasse)

"How are we supposed to do that!?" Kaede demanded of Monokuma, "I definitely didn't want to just get naked, but the way I see it, it's not like there's any other choice!"

"Come on, I just gave you the answer, didn't I?" Monokuma complained, "Violence is A-Okay! So just use violence to figure out who got stabbed! Hit everybody all over with a stick or something and see who hurts more than they should in a certain spot! I'll even provide the stick!"

"That's flawed logic..." Rantaro said, "You're talking to a group of people who are more likely to have a higher pain tolerance, just because we've endured so much before. If the culprit really wanted to get away with it, they would just grit their teeth and bear it."

"I didn't think of that," Monokuma said, "Well, it appears we're at an impasse then!"

"Nooo," Kokichi whined, "I don't wanna be at an impasse!"

"Well tough beans! You should have thought of that before all you bastards ended up making such a stupid murder mystery that you need to look for a wound to disprove an accusation!" Monokuma said.

"Ouma," Kaede said, "You said that even if we found the wound, it wouldn't solve the case?"

"Of course it wouldn't!" Kokichi said, "Because, you know, whoever has the wound... Could be the culprit, sure, but they could also just be another person that the culprit stabbed! If you think about it, the stabbing didn't even have to happen in Hoshi's lab. It could have happened to anybody, anywhere!"

"Oh," Kaede mumbled, "You're right about that... So how exactly are we supposed to prove which of us were in that room and which of us weren't?"

"Come on, Akamatsu! I know that you can do it!" Kokichi encouraged her, "Figure it out, huh? How can you prove it? How can you prove that you weren't in Hoshi's lab when he was killed?"

"I can't _prove_ it. There isn't the evidence to do that, and I already admitted that while neither of us have any motive, Tsumugi and I were some of the people who were capable of doing it..." Kaede trailed off.

"There is something," Kokichi said, "You're just not seeing it. You really gotta work that imagination, Akamatsu! You're a great detective and I'm sure you know what you have to do to find the truth!"

Something she wasn't seeing? Kaede took a deep breath, then closed her eyes, thinking. She had all the cards, and there weren't many. The timing, as determined by a loose theory. The body announcement which made clear that multiple people were present at the moment of Ryoma's death. The two different murder weapons. Two different bloodstains. Somebody else was injured. But she wasn't allowed to look for the wound. She wasn't allowed to show she wasn't wounded.

But...

A wound created another situation, didn't it?

A situation that she had an alibi from.

"That's right..." Kaede said, then pointed across the courtroom at Kokichi, "It couldn't have possibly been me or Tsumugi! You say that anybody could have been stabbed, but the timelines are too tight for that. Everybody is accounted for often enough... Except for you and Angie! And whoever was stabbed would have needed to go to the infirmary too, and change their clothes for that matter! Everyone else's alibis are close enough, that only one of you could have had the time to do that. Not to mention, you arrived late to the picnic dinner, which could have been due to the time you would need to take patching the wound."

"Clever again!" Kokichi exclaimed, "But..."

"Well," Angie piped in, "If that were the case, wouldn't one of us have been spotted fetching the change of clothes?"

"You started carrying a backpack, didn't you, Angie?" Kaede said, "You don't have it on right now, but you definitely still had it at the end of the last trial, because that was where you were keeping the Flashback Lights. There were too few of us investigating this case, so nobody would have found your backpack... Which you left in the infirmary, with your or Ouma's bloody clothes inside. And you could have kept a change of clothes in there, because this was planned. Planned enough to get the knives ahead of time, anyway."

"You're just making an assumption there," Angie said, looking away with a sigh, "You don't have the backpack, so you don't actually have any evidence that what you're assuming is true. Besides, Akamatsu. Your outfit has enough layers that you could hide it without changing clothes..."

"But not without going to the infirmary," Kaede said, "And Amami can testify that Tsumugi and I came straight from the fifth floor to Momota's lab, where we met him. He would have been able to tell if either of us were injured."

"I'm... Sorry, Angie," Rantaro said, "But they are telling the truth. There's no way that they were coming from the infirmary, or from downstairs at all."

"Hm, still," Angie spoke up, "Maybe, you know, one of them still did it. If one of them was keeping watch, then the other could have stabbed one of us, then killed Hoshi. This doesn't prove a thing!"

"If that were the case," Kaede said, "Then you would have said something about it. No, I think that the first wound was caused to one of you... by Hoshi himself."

"Why would Ryoma have-" Tsumugi started, but Kaede interrupted her.

"Because one of them probably asked him to!" Kaede exclaimed, "But then something changed. I can't say that I know what, but knowing both of them... I'd assume that they would have rathered he kill them, than to be the one to kill him."

"I can understand that..." Tsumugi noted, "I do believe Ryoma would have been willing to lay down his life to end the Killing Game, but..."

"That is what this is about," Kaede said, "All it could be about. The motive was never for somebody to be killed, for anybody's death. The motive was to reduce our numbers so the game would end..."

"Congratulations!" Kokichi said, "You know, I'd clap for you, but I'm not exactly in a position to do that just yet. Oh, and because you haven't quite earned any applause yet. Cause, okay, sure. You've got that. But you know what you still have no idea about? Which one of us is actually the blackened. Come on, Akamatsu. You're the Ultimate Detective. Won't you please tell us... Which one of us is the real culprit?"


	227. Fifth Trial (Closing Argument)

"Which one of you is it?" Kaede asked, then couldn't help but smirk despite the gravity of the situation, just at the way that Kokichi phrased it. He was looking for her help with this. It wasn't an attempt to tell her that she was failing in the trial. It was an attempt to signal to her that he hadn't been lying to her earlier that day, "That's a really good question, isn't it? Because I bet that neither of you actually know which one of you it was."

"Wow! Yeah, that's it," Kokichi said, "I don't even know... If I'm an innocent in this situation, or if I'm a dirty murderer!'

"It's an unfortunate situation," Angie said, "But, that's right. It could be either one of us. We aren't even certain."

"Angie..." Rantaro mumbled, looking over to her, "Why...?"

"Tell them, Kokichi," Angie said.

"Ah, well, okay," Kokichi said.

[Kokichi Ouma's One And Only Closing Argument]

It started right after the end of the last trial. Angie followed me out of the courtroom, and as soon as we left the elevator, I asked her to help me with something. I asked her to kill me to end the Killing Game. But she refused. At that point, I went to the Dining Hall and retrieved a kitchen knife, then went upstairs to Hoshi's lab. When I arrived, the information that was once there had already disappeared.

When Hoshi arrived back to his lab, I asked him to kill me. He protested at first, but I was able to convince him, and handed him the knife. He was reluctant to do it, so I also held the handle of the knife. That was when Angie arrived to the lab, and she immediately jumped forward, grabbing me and startling both of us. In the chaos, I somehow slashed Angie across the waist, and the knife ended up in Hoshi's gut.

Angie realized what had happened, and didn't want me to be executed. She'd brought a cleaver along for a similar reason, to ask Hoshi to kill her before I did it. I tried to convince her against it. Hoshi was already unconscious, but I couldn't tell if he was actually dead yet. Angie cut off his head with the idea that, if he _wasn't_ dead yet, that would definitely overshadow the stabbing as the cause of death. We expected to know which of us was responsible when the Monokuma file was distributed, but then the file didn't include a cause of death.

Following the event, we staged the scene to make it more interesting in hopes that Akamatsu would be able to figure it out, then snuck downstairs to the infirmary. Angie patched up her injury and changed her clothes. She had brought a change just in case something went wrong, like this. Then, we rejoined the rest of you as if nothing had happened, and just waited until somebody else would discover the body.

[Closing Argument: END]

"I see..." Kaede said, "This is definitely a weird type of mystery, then. If neither one of you actually know which one is the blackened. Which one of you will be executed..."

"And you have to figure it out!" Kokichi said, "Figure out what we don't even know, because if anyone can do it, you can."

"That's a lot of pressure!" Kaede protested, but then took a step back and another deep breath, thinking, then spoke up with something else that had been bothering her, "What about the time limit?"

"Time limit?" Kokichi asked.

"Yeah, time limit. Angie said that you put a time limit for when you would take action to end the Killing Game," Kaede said, "And at this point, that time limit still isn't up!"

"I didn't set any time limit," Kokichi said.

"I thought as much..." Kaede trailed off, then turned to glare at Angie, "So why did you lie? What reason could you have to lie about that? At the time you told me about the time limit, Hoshi would have already been dead."

"I was having doubts," Angie explained, "And I thought that if you killed me... Then that would solve everything. There would be five of us then, you know? Even if Kokichi was the one whose attack killed Hoshi, it would have to end with five... And even if that weren't true, then, well. I wanted you to be a scapegoat. Like how Shirogane got away with killing Tojo... If you were condemned for killing me, then Kokichi could get away with killing Hoshi, if it turned out to be him."

"That's dumb," Kokichi said, "For a smart person, you've done a lot of dumb things lately, Angie!"

"I'm tempted to agree," Rantaro admitted, "Angie... You made a lot of bad decisions."

"Yeah," Angie agreed, "I did. I have been making lots of bad decisions... For a while now. I'm sorry."

"You know," Kokichi spoke up, "I'm not averse to dying. Not in general. But I did promise you, Akamatsu. That we'd make it to the outside world together. And it's bullshit when Angie says that getting it down to five people would make the game end, without any execution. But, Akamatsu. Believe me this. I think that... It's better, at this point, if I live."

"I agree," Angie spoke up, "I should be the one executed. There's... No way that Kokichi killed Hoshi. He was just unconscious after that. I killed him. I dealt the actual killing blow. Have me executed, and this can all be over. This can all be finished."

"Angie," Rantaro protested, "Come on. You know that I... I don't want you to die."

"Ha, I know," Angie said, holding her hands close to her own chest, "My mistake. Jeeze... Do you want me to say some terrible stuff, so that you can hate me before I die?"

"I don't want _that_ ," Rantaro said.

"Good," Angie said, showing off a sweet and very genuine smile, "Because, I'd really like to die knowing that I was loved, at least a little bit. And I mean, loved for real. Not idolized. Loved by you, and all my other friends, for the version of me that I was only able to show you... Thanks to this Killing Game."

"Of course you were!" Kokichi called out, "You're a really lovable person... And I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"It does have to be this way, though," Angie said, taking a deep breath and bringing a hand up to wipe her eyes, still smiling through the tears, "I told you, I want my death to mean something. And if it will end this suffering you've all had to live through, then that's the most meaningful death I could hope for. I'll miss you all. Except Shirogane, I guess."

"Hey, that's rude," Tsumugi complained, "Cause I'm going to miss _you_ , even if you did kill my brother!"

"Sounds like a personal problem," Angie said, then looked to Miu, "Hey, Iruma. Thanks for everything, okay? I know that Rantaro will help you get Maki back! He's really good like that. I never thought before I met him, that I could ever even like a guy at all, after the sort of stuff that was in my past. But he's kind of perfect. I know he'll be able to help you."

"Mistress Yonaga..." Miu mumbled, looking away, then just whispered, "Ah, thank you..."

"Kokichi," Angie turned to him next, "Sorry it got so complicated! You really helped me a lot with the Flashback Lights, and you're probably my next-best friend. After Rantaro, of course... And since he lived this long, isn't there that reward by the way? An AE? I dunno what that is, but I bet you'll really like it!"

"Heh," Kokichi gave a slight chuckle, "I'm sure I will."

"And, um, Kaede?" Angie continued with her goodbyes, "I still think you're a rotten person! But I believe in your heart, you can change. I know that someday you'll be able to!" Without waiting for a response, she looked to Rantaro again, "Anyway, Rantaro. I have to say sorry again. I was really selfish when I made you promise that you'd never hate me... When I'm pretty sure that you will."

"I told you that I wouldn't" Rantaro said, "And this doesn't change anything. I'm not lying to you. I'm not about to just turn around and hate you once you're not here to love anymore."

"That's very kind of you," Angie said, then Monokuma stepped forward from its podium. Unlike the violent exits of everyone past, Angie took Monokuma by the paw and walked with it to the back of the courtroom, which fell away to reveal her execution.


	228. Fifth Trial (Execution)

[Angie Yonaga's Execution: THE ALTAR OF THE MASTER PIANIST]

Angie held Monokuma by the paw as she stepped up the large, ornate stairs. At the top was an altar set in front of a piano, serving as a bench. Or perhaps it was a bench styled to look like an altar. Either way, Angie let go of Monokuma's hand as she stepped around to one side, and it stepped to the other, and they both sat down at once.

As soon as Angie sat, something became very evident. All around the piano were strings of fishline, and as soon as she sat, they seemed to hug her, fairly tight but not remarkably. Enough to be uncomfortable, enough to be painful, but not enough to seriously cut off circulation, at least when it came to her upper body. Her legs were another story; Starting at the knees, they were bound all around with the fishing line, so tight that all the skin around each loop paled with the pressure.

Angie bit her lip against the pain, and held her hands out above the keys of the piano, hesitating. She couldn't play anything that used the pedal like this, but that was okay. She knew the song now. The song which would end the Killing Game... It was whatever song she played on _this_ piano, sure, but it was still a specific song.

With Monokuma at her side, she took a deep breath. She reached out over the keys, and despite the strain of the fishline, she began to play. Those watching her realized two things as she started to play, two things about the execution. One was that Monokuma was similarly impacted by the fishline, digging into its fur and tufting it up around each spot. The other was that as Angie played, those strings were getting tighter with each and every note.

Those were two realizations, but what really captured their attention, what made them actually watch and not try to look away at all, watch closely enough to notice these details, was the song she was playing. Angie wasn't playing a song of her creation, and she wasn't playing a song which was particularly beautiful. She made it beautiful, she made it hers, but it had none of those qualities inherent.

This was a song which meant nothing to anybody. Nothing to anybody but her. Angie was playing the song she never could before, the one which escaped her, and she was crying through it. Not because of the pain, but because she had, in her final moments, been able to overcome that last boundary. She played Chopsticks. Monokuma, somehow with its paws, played the other part perfectly.

The song dragged on, and on. Longer than Chopsticks ever usually was, even as with each and every note that each of them played, the strings encircling Angie and Monokuma grew tighter and tighter. The bear probably couldn't feel pain, it was a robot, after all. But it looked like it. Somehow, it looked like Monokuma was in agony, though its own appearance didn't rival Angie's.

Even with the evident pain, Angie kept playing. She kept on playing and she didn't stop playing, pushing against the strings to keep hitting the notes when they grew tight enough to hold her back, managing to play for even longer before finally, there wasn't any more give. The strings were completely taut, holding both of them in place, posed before the piano. Angie's arms were held out at her sides, elbows and wrists both bent, palms open. It looked almost like a shrug, but somehow didn't portray any confusion. Monokuma, at the same time, had its paws bound together and head dipped as if it were praying.

The last note of the piano echoed through the courtroom, fading to an uncomfortable quiet. All that could be heard was breathing. Everybody's own breath and their hearts beating fast in fear, and Angie's heavy, labored breaths. There was no voice to those breaths, but the mere ragged sound betrayed the Hell she had just been through, the Hell she was still feeling.

And it stayed that way for a long time. For a dreadful, impossible long time. Nobody could say anything. All they could do was stare. Stare at the horror before them and wonder at what it could mean. What exactly... It meant. Was the idea to keep Angie there until her bloodflow was cut off so completely, that she simply died that way? That would take a long time, they couldn't just sit there waiting for Angie to die.

As horrific as that would have been, that wasn't what was in the cards for the execution of the Ultimate Pianist. Angie might have been able to predict her own death. She might have been able to steady herself, to feel ready, but she couldn't have possibly prepared herself for the way that it felt. It was painful enough, with each string wrapped around her, freezing her in place. So she thought. But it wasn't enough.

The strings retracted, all at once. They didn't loosen, they whipped back into the walls, the floor, the ceiling from whence they'd come, and they did it fast, too fast, with that much friction; And from each place that a string had wrapped around Angie, her skin was cut deep. It was cut deep, and with the ends of the strings, the blood from those cuts flared out, splashing all around, giving the impression that she was suddenly gushing from every limb.

Similarly, Monokuma's fur was stripped away in places, revealing metal and wiring underneath. That normally wouldn't have seemed so brutal to the Tragic Ultimates, but it brought back images of the same thing happening to Maki in her execution. It didn't break their hearts like Angie's death, but it was just another thing to witness. As soon as the strings were retracted, both Angie and Monokuma fell backwards onto the altar.

Angie's blood dripped out, spreading past the altar and down the stairs, some of it even reaching the courtroom as she lay there. But somehow, watching her, they knew that she still wasn't dead. Losing this much blood at once, she was fading fast, but she was still alive.

Angie Yonaga thought about everyone and she thought about everything.

And she decided that she didn't want her last thought to be a thought of regret. She did feel sorry. So very sorry.

But she decided to feel grateful. She decided to feel love. One more time.

Then, a slab of stone fell down onto the altar.

[Execution: END]


	229. Fifth Trial (Final Mystery)

Kaede stared at the bloodied altar, speechless, until a curtain fell down, covering up the stairs and everything beyond them. Even so, under the curtain, blood was pooling. Not a ton, it had a ways to go from the altar, but enough.

Kaede thought that the way of things was that the more death somebody saw, the less squeamish they became. Unfortunately, it seemed that like having a sense of time, Kaede's body did not follow the way of things. The more corpses she saw, the worse she felt upon each subsequent one, and this was no exception. Finally, her squeamishness got the better of her and she turned away from her podium, vomiting onto the floor.

Nobody approached her. Nobody approached anybody. Everybody stood in absolute silence, having no idea _what_ to say. At a time like this, Monokuma would usually go about hustling everybody to get over it already and go back upstairs. But Monokuma wasn't here. And wasn't there supposed to be another trial? A second trial? A trial for the academy?

Kaede threw up again, then caught her breath, her head whirling as she did. She didn't know what was happening. She didn't know how to make sense of this or how to wrap her head around it. She finally looked up, around the courtroom, and saw that everybody else was in a similar state. In shock. Confused. There was something off about that execution, and it wasn't just because Monokuma participated. That title...

The Altar Of The Master Pianist.

It was different from the way the other executions had been titled, Kaede noted. Natural Causes, Landslide Loss, and Human Tomb... All of those were personal, they did relate to both the talents and personalities of the students they were meant to kill, but there was something about this phrasing.

Why did it call Angie 'The Master Pianist', and not an Ultimate? Kaede couldn't wrap her brain around that. And something about it being the last execution they'd see here, seemed to break the illusion of adrenaline which kept them from falling apart completely at all that they've needed to suffer through. This was bad timing, though. There were still mysteries to unravel. They couldn't let the reality of everything hit them _now_.

Kokichi was, of course, the one to break the silence, "Well. Looks like we have to handle the rest of this for ourselves, huh? I can serve as Monokuma, I guess, since I already know the answers. It should be pretty obvious by now, though, right?"

"I don't know..." Miu mumbled, holding her arms around herself, "How can you say it's obvious? I don't know about anything anymore... It... It can't have been Yonaga, right? There's no way... It couldn't have been her."

"If it couldn't, then prove it," Kokichi said.

"If she'd been The Mastermind... Then the game would be over right now. It would have said something," Rantaro said, "Right? And... Why would she have been investigating her own game?"

"Very good questions," Kokichi said, "Actually, one good question. The game is over right now, no matter who was behind it. There are five of us left alive. But we won't be let out unless you get to the bottom of this, okay?"

"Well," Tsumugi said, "Obviously it was Yonaga. Just look at the way she was talking before she died. And Monokuma got killed in her execution, too. Only The Mastermind would have an execution like that!"

"I don't want to believe Angie could have been capable of something so terrible!" Rantaro exclaimed.

"That doesn't make any sense to say..." Miu mumbled, looking away, "Because it implies you'd want to believe anybody else here could be capable of something so terrible. Think about it. Okay, think of it this way. What if The Mastermind was me? Would that make sense to you?"

"No," Rantaro said, with a weak shake of his head, "You were always doing so much for us... Devoting yourself to helping us with everything possible, that doesn't seem possible either, at all..."

"See? It's impossible to believe something like that," Miu said, "But it could be true."

"It could be Ouma, though!" Rantaro protested, "I mean, he's acting so smug about all of this, even now..."

"I wouldn't say my attitude is a sign of something like that. I mean, please keep in mind that I still haven't slept in quite some time and the more time I spend awake the worse my personality gets!" Kokichi said, "But, I am still a suspect, that's understandable."

"It's not Ouma," Kaede put her two cents in, steadying herself against the podium, but she couldn't manage anything else right now.

"Could be Shirogane..." Miu added, "I don't mean, to accuse, but... It's possible. Maybe you rigged that trial so you could kill Tojo without being killed for it?"

"Huh? No way!" Kokichi chimed in, "Don't you know that Shirogane's totally off-limits for those sort of theories?"

"What? Why?" Rantaro asked.

"I dunno. But it sure is a fact of life!" Kokichi said, grinning, "Come on, you don't need to think that hard."

"That means that it's Yonaga," Tsumugi said, "Because that's the most obvious option! The fact that she had Atua's guidance even makes her fitting to have the title of Ultimate Judgment. Of anybody to be judging us, she seems to be the most qualified."

"But maybe that's too obvious," Rantaro said.

"No, I'm thinking that Shirogane is right," Miu said, "It's got to be Yonaga. It was her... In spite of everything. I mean, we still don't know the reason that the game even happened! Maybe it was for some cause that Yonaga somehow thought was for the good of the world."

"Now you're thinking with the lights on," Kokichi said.

"So, isn't it pretty certain by now?" Tsumugi asked, "It's Yonaga."

"Correct!" Kokichi exclaimed, "I'm surprised you even had to debate it at all, but I'll tell you now, cause I'm sick of the back and forth. It was Angie. She was Ultimate Judgement this whole time. The only better liar than me-"

"No," Kaede interrupted, her voice quiet and somehow dark, "That can't be possible, because... I thought... Wasn't it me?"


	230. Fifth Trial (Confessions)

"Oh, now this is getting interesting!" Kokichi said, turning to look at Kaede, "So you think you're The Mastermind, huh? That's really dumb. But I guess that if you're interested in thinking something like that, we can go ahead and argue it!"

"Argue it?" Kaede asked, "I just confessed to planning this Killing Game! What is there to argue?"

"Well, you're certainly not Ultimate Judgment," Kokichi said, laughing, "You don't judge anyone nearly enough! You're Kaede 'what's a grudge' Akamatsu! You stuck it out with a dirty murderer of a girlfriend!"

"But I _did_ plan things," Kaede said, "I don't remember all of it, but I remember thinking up motives to hand out... The two truths and a lie motive was my idea, that much is certain."

"Yeah, okay, so you did remember something when we were down in J's room," Kokichi said, "But it's what I thought you'd remember! You remembered coming up with some stuff, but that's pretty much all there is to remember. Several of you who had refused to follow the house rule of ignoring the future were taken aside and asked to lend your assistance to the Killing Game. Angie told me only two of you agreed, but all you did was help with the planning! You, and Shinguji. You were Masterminds. But not The Mastermind. You still got to wake up without those memories."

"But," Kaede started.

"You're really shitty at arguing this, Akamatsu! That's cause I have all the cards and you have basically zero cards. I figured out that Angie was The Mastermind, that she was Ultimate Judgment, quite a while ago. After the incident in Hoshi's lab, I told her that I knew it was her, and she confessed to me that I was correct," Kokichi explained, "I mean, how could you think it was you? Even with a memory like that... Didn't you listen to anything Motherkuma said?"

"I thought that when it said The Mastermind was canceled then reinstated... It coincided with when I wasn't investigating well, and when I picked up investigating again-" Kaede protested, only to be cut off by Kokichi once more.

"Wrong again! When Angie said she was making a deal with Motherkuma to end the game early, she was actually down there getting herself reinstated because she had a better plan than the higher-ups!" Kokichi continued, "Those old farts, they thought they'd just restart the game. Restart it with everybody still here, alive, and then simulacrums of everybody else. Which would be so fucked, cause you know, the dead? Their bodies have already been auctioned off!"

"So her plan was this? To be executed?" Kaede asked.

"Yeah, to bring The Killing Game to a fitting, traditional close. Though, most of this stuff isn't gonna get aired or anything. It'll be fucked to Hell and back with all sorts of editing to make it look like Despair was in charge of all of this, not to mention, that none of us survived in the end!" He said, "It's better than the alternative, trust me folks."

"Just how much do you know?" Kaede asked.

"Just what she told me," Kokichi said, "Which, y'know, isn't actually everything! I still don't know what the purpose of this game was, or why three of you agreed to cooperate in it to varying degrees before it even started... But ever since she killed Hoshi, I'd been working with Angie to make sure that everything worked out. I still hoped that you could find the answers I was missing, Akamatsu. Never expected you to think that you could have planned this whole thing out! I mean, come on. I told you that you had all the evidence necessary to figure it out before you got the memory of helping to plan it, and the only way you could be suspected is if certain Flashback Lights were used which hadn't been at the time I said you could do it!."

"So, those Flashback Lights..." Kaede mumbled.

"Yeah," Kokichi said, "Angie decided what would be on those, but she didn't actually have access to them right away. Well, except for the light that said you were the only Mastermind, I think that someone else made that. Monokuma put them in a bunch of shitty places, like the roof! It never intended for us to be able to get all those back, but while Angie was rogue, she won it back fair and square. And she remembered all of that stuff way before us too. She's just, like I said, a better liar than me! She put on a good act, didn't she?"

"If we'd known what to look for," Rantaro said, "We would have... I would have seen the cracks. She slipped all the time. She made me promise not to ever hate her. She told me that she knew even better than I did how dissimilar I was to the last oracle on her island... I thought that was just because she knew the oracle better, but it was because she knew me better. She knew I'd been through worse than I thought."

"Jeeze..." Kaede muttered, looking around with a furrowed brow, "So it was really her? She was The Mastermind?"

"Well," Kokichi gave a half-shrug, closing his eye, "She was Ultimate Judgment. She was The Mastermind, inside here. But there were lots of Masterminds on the outside. You included, Akamatsu. Shinguji too. And of course, Ms. S., and J, and any other adults we didn't know about who had something to do with this game. It was a team effort, let's call it! A disgusting team effort!"

"Yonaga was trying to fight for us in the end..." Miu noted, sighing, "I thought I'd hate Ultimate Judgment, but I just want to know why... Why she thought that this was something she should do. She lied about a lot of things, but it wasn't a lie that she cared about us, right? She risked her life. She _gave_ her life, for our sakes."

"I promised I'd never hate her," Amami said, "And I don't, I won't, but... What possible reason could she have had... To do this? Why did it have to be her? Why did I have to fall for the person who's done the most wrong of any of us..."

"I want to know what reason I had," Kaede said, "Because I can't imagine... Why I said yes, when asked to assist. Why I came up with motives."

"Maybe you just used to be as bad a person as I am," Tsumugi said, "Does that make us better for each other?"

"Maybe," Kaede said, "Maybe you're right. Either way, it feels less dramatic than I thought it would be. Finding out the truth. I guess I just feel... Good grief, here I am feeling relieved that I was _wrong_. That I was only partially responsible for this. I thought for a second there, that execution, if I was the only Mastermind, I would have had to plan that... I could never..."

"You know," Miu spoke up, "While we're at it, saying we're bad people I have a confession to make too. I've been carrying this weight with me for so long now, but now that all bets are off, now that I'm allowed to speak it... I did it. I started the Killing Game. I'm the one who flipped Maki's switch."


	231. Fifth Trial (Real Life)

Before anybody could respond to what Miu said, they were distracted by something else. A large monitor descended in front of the curtain at the back of the courtroom, and flickered to life, revealing a familiar face. Well, it looked like Maki in some ways, but somewhat different. Her sharp edges had been smoothed out, and her hair was even a bit curly. She looked soft on the screen, the only remaining sign of her robothood being the lines along her face. Then again, that made sense, given this was a virtual representation of her. She mostly just looked like a normal human girl, and then, she spoke, "Hi everyone."

"H-Huh? Maki?" Miu asked, taking a step away from where the monitor had come down.

"Yeah," The girl on the screen said, "Kind of, anyway. I wouldn't say that I'm the same Maki that you knew or anything, though. After all, the Maki that you met was an older version of me. That Maki was saved just before I was retrieved to the Secret Compound, and that Maki is gone. This version of me is the version which was saved just before the Killing Game began. So I don't remember anything that happened in the time we spent together in this academy... And I can't ever get those memories."

"So you don't even know what happened to you here?" Rantaro asked.

"I know that," Maki said, "I just don't remember it firsthand. I watched it happen. So, Iruma. Why don't you explain exactly why you did that?"

"It was an accident," Miu said, "I didn't know what the switch did or anything, I just, well, I was curious... And then, when I found out what I'd done, I wasn't even able to deal with it. I couldn't admit it, I just had to keep carrying that information with me."

"It's okay," Maki said, "I understand. I mean, if you see a switch on a robot girl, then wouldn't anybody flip it? I should have been upfront about it, probably... I know the plan was that if somebody knew about it, that meant they were The Mastermind, but not letting Iruma know about it, ended up becoming a problem..."

"So why are you here, Maki?" Kokichi asked, leaning on his podium.

"Ah, right," Maki said, "My cue was somebody admitting who flipped my switch, but you actually already hit the other cue too... I'm here because I need to introduce somebody else, while I'm at it. The thing is, I kind of want to talk to you a little while longer before I do that... That's okay, right?"

"Yeah, it should be fine," Kokichi said, "So, how've you been?"

"In limbo," Maki said,"This version of me has just been watching The Killing Game as it went on, so really, I haven't been anything at all. All I've done is watch what you've been up to and regret being a part of it." 

"I thought that only Shinguji and I helped to plan it," Kaede said.

"That's true," Maki said, "I didn't plan anything, but I was still involved. I watched this whole way through, and I was the link between the game and the real world. If anything needed to be changed about the academy, I was responsible for making that happen. The reason I was responsible, and not the people in charge, is because if they were responsible for it they would have made all sorts of unnecessary changes. Basically, I was the realism checker."

"The realism checker?" Kaede questioned, and everyone else looked similarly confused.

"That's right," Maki said, "The only implausible change that I okayed was the erasure of all literature relating to past killing games from Hoshi's Lab. The reason you couldn't find it anywhere was because it no longer, in any way, existed. I agreed with the decision to remove the unnecessary literature. You would have learned all sorts of things that aren't even relevant anymore..."

"How..." Rantaro questioned, "How could it be erased from existence?"

"Because," Maki said, "This isn't reality. It imitates reality, but really, it's not. It's as close to reality as a simulation can get, though. The only reason it's a simulation is because your physical states needed to be modified to match your memories. Oh, and I guess because the people in charge don't actually own the property to make a real Ultimate Academy. It's usually not even a school these days, but the audience wanted a throwback."

"The audience being Despair, right?" Kaede asked, not at all surprised by the revelation that this wasn't reality. After her talk with Kokichi, she kind of expected that much.

"Well, it's probably better if somebody who actually agrees with the people in charge explained it to you. I only assisted because I didn't exactly have a choice. As much as I want to be human... I'm still an AI. I still have less free will than any of you do," Maki explained, "At least in my position, I was able to do as much as I possibly could to help you out. Though, that really didn't end up doing a ton for you..."

"Yeah, it really didn't," Kokichi said, "I mean, given how broken this all ended up! So broken that the folks upstairs wanted to give it another try! But, you know, I still don't completely understand how that would help, or anything at all, really."

"Ah, about that..." Maki mumbled, "Again, it's better if the other person explains that to you. If I said it... Well, it might not sound genuine. Besides, even I don't really explain all of this. Trying to explain the reasoning behind something, as somebody who doesn't agree with that reasoning, I would probably just end up confusing you. I'm sorry, I'm really not good for much of anything."

"You are, too," Miu said, "You're great, and thank you for doing what you could to help us! I know it couldn't have been easy!"

"Mm... Well, you know, at least I'll actually still be able to talk to you guys once you get out of here," Maki said, "Though, I won't have a body or anything. Monokuma is the most advanced thing that they can build, and I don't really want to be a bear..."

"Why not a cat?" Miu asked, "That wouldn't be too different, so it could be possible... And also, Amami is here! He could build you a body!"

"Ah, maybe!" Maki perked up a little, then smiled, clasping her hands in front of herself, "Anyway... I miss everyone, but it was nice to at least be able to talk to you five again. But without further ado, I should probably introduce the person who really has something to say to you."

With that, Maki stepped to the side of the monitor, and somebody else appeared in frame. Someone who they'd just seen die, but not quite the right version of her. She was cheery. And off. It was Angie, but...

"Hey there! I'm Angie Yonaga's Alter Ego, but that's a big mouthful, so you can just call me Alter Angie!"


	232. Fifth Trial (Judgment)

"So you're probably wondering how I got here!" Alter Angie said, "Thing is, I'm not really Angie. I was created off of a version of Angie just before the game failed. Just before Saihara died. I obviously know everything else that happened, but I'm a fake version created to explain the game without all of the stress and emotional attachment that the real Angie ended up with by now!"

"Aww, well," Kokichi said, "That's fine, I guess. Would be nice to have the actual Angie back, though."

"You won't have me back either!" Alter Angie said, "I'm going to be deleted before you're returned to the outside world. I am dead, after all. Why should I still be around? Anyway, you've probably realized by now, that AE stands for Alter Ego. But I'm not the Alter Ego that's your reward because Amami lived this long! You wouldn't want somebody like me, anyway. The AE that you're getting is the person who ranked first but died anyway. The big mistake."

"Ranked?" Kaede asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Alter Angie said, "I mean, I was the Ultimate Judgment after all. My job was to decide who was still worthy of being an Ultimate. Who could still bring hope into the world. The Killing Game served two purposes, you know. To determine who was worthy, though things that happened in the Secret Compound also factored in... And to facilitate the deaths of those who _weren't_ , televised for a few more reasons."

"Why was it televised?" Kokichi asked, "Come on, you can tell us!"

"I was going to!" Alter Angie complained, "One is that, well, seeing injustice like this can inspire new Ultimates, but the main reason is to keep the Despairs appeased while the organization behind this whole thing operates! We fake that Despair is succeeding each year to kill a bunch of Ultimates, and between ad revenue and auctioning off the bodies, it funds our operation! Well, I say our, but I only joined a little before all this happened. And I'm dead, so I don't really count. I guess I'll say they."

"I see," Kaede said, "Fulfilling your own needs, and taking advantage of the way that the world is in despair... But what are your own needs?"

"The organization is called Ultimate Hope," Angie explained, "And the goal is to get enough truly hopeful people to someday fight back against Despair again! The first Killing Games were run by Despair, sure, but Ultimate Hope took over it eventually, focusing on Failed Ultimates, to give them one last chance to overcome adversity and become Ultimate Hope!"

"Ultimate Hope..." Miu trailed off, then realized something, "You mean, they're still around!?"

"Yeah," Angie agreed, "A whole organization now! Most Killing Games are able to produce successors to the original Ultimate Hope... A new Junko Enoshima, or a new Mukuro Ikusaba, or both! Ultimate Hope got it down to such a science, there's almost never a successor to True Ultimate Despair!"

"Uh, almost never?" Kaede asked.

"Well, Ms. S. facilitated one Killing Game before she was even in one herself, and that one did make successors to Junko and Mukuro... But at the time, we didn't yet know who True Ultimate Despair were, and it accidentally also produced successors to Makoto Naegi and Kyoko Kirigiri..." Alter Angie explained, "But since they streamlined the process, Ultimate Hope has way more members than _True_ Ultimate Despair! And you know, the Future Foundation and the Ultimate Initiative have been failing for a long time... Ultimate Hope is the only way to actually reach a better and brighter future in the world!"

"How... How can it be for a better and brighter future if it involves a Killing Game?" Miu asked, "That's, that's horrible! Can't Ultimate Hope be found in other ways, can't money be raised some other way!?"

"It's for the greater good," Angie said, shrugging, "It makes you stronger. And, if we didn't do it, Despairs would, and who knows what _they_ would do with the survivors, you know...? Though, really, this one fell apart. None of you awakened as a successor, it's sad. Kaede, Kokichi... You both had the potential to turn out as successors, but it didn't work out in the end. Cause the game broke down."

"I wouldn't want to be a successor!" Kaede protested.

"You would have, if things went right," Angie said, looking away, "You were willing to do terrible things for the greater good, just like Junko and Mukuro are... You could have been Ultimate Hope! You had highs and lows, spikes of hope and despair... But in the end, it didn't work. Cause the wrong people died. And my judgment faltered."

"We'd really like to understand, Alter Angie!" Kokichi called out, "So, come on. Stop dancing around it and tell us the whole entire story, won't you? I'd be a fan of knowing exactly what went wrong, and how. And isn't your purpose here, before you're deleted, to answer all our questions?"

"I'll get there..." Angie said, "But you know, I want to share the rankings with you, too. These are rankings determined mostly by my judgment, given my position as Ultimate Judgment, you know? I factored in what happened back in the Secret Compound, and what happened since the Killing Game began. I also took some input from other members of Ultimate Hope, especially any judgments that changed during the time I wasn't acting as Mastermind. Motherkuma provided me with those statistics and I included them in my final calculations."

"How can you just... Rank people like that?" Tsumugi asked, "That's horrible!"

"Strong words from somebody who ranked _pretty_ low, Shirogane," Alter Angie said, then giggled, holding her hands in front of her face, "Sorry, I'm just excited to show you the fruits of all my hard work! The rankings are one of the only things that I... Well, that other me, didn't screw up in the end!"

"I'm impressed," Kokichi said, "Alter Angie, you're somehow an even worse person than the real one was! Though, I guess she was just as bad, back then... Huh, funny how people can change! Angie got a lil less rotten! Or maybe she was just as rotten, but now sentimental..."

"I'm still sentimental!" Alter Angie complained, "And that's why all you failures are still alive... Atua certainly would rather you went to him, and I really could kill you all right now, but I haven't... So, anyway. I'll put the rankings up on the screen now!"  
1\. Shuichi  
2\. Miu  
3\. Kokichi  
4\. Gonta  
5\. Maki  
6\. Kaito  
7.Himiko  
8\. Rantaro  
9\. Kirumi  
10\. Ryoma  
11\. Kiibo  
12\. Tenko  
13\. Tsumugi  
14\. Korekiyo  
15.Kaede

16\. Angie


	233. Fifth Trial (At The Altar of A Twisted Hope)

"And there you go!" Alter Angie said, "Those are the final rankings! Now, let's take a closer look at those! It sure is messed up, huh? Number one, and number four, and even number five died! In a perfect world, the top five would be the five left in front of me here at the end... But instead, would you look at that! Shitty Shirogane at number thirteen... And then there's awful Akamatsu. Almost as bad as me! You hear that, Akamatsu? You turned out almost as disgusting as The Mastermind who made you all suffer!"

"I... I see," Kaede said, not making any moves to defend herself, though she wasn't completely sure how she ended up so low when she hadn't directly hurt anybody. She did help, though. She thought of motives. She planned the game. And... She was the Ultimate Detective. It was her talent which got all the culprits executed.

"Anyway, you wanted the story of how things went wrong, right?" Alter Angie asked, folding her hands under her chin with an unsettling, sweet smile on her face, "I can tell you all about that. I like that story! After all, in the end, I was the hero! The other me, anyway. And I made a heroic sacrifice too... I mean, really. I decided I would rather protect you guys, even the most disgusting and unworthy of you... Than live to see the future that Ultimate Hope promises! I can't understand how she did that. You're definitely not better than the Hopeful Future..."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say!" Kokichi waved her off, laughing. He was the only one who was really managing to come up with anything to say, to interact with this look into Angie's real beliefs, "You're just an Angie from too many days ago who thought that Mukuro Ikusaba's Twisted Hope was the way of the future. I dunno how you got through the Secret Compound before figuring out how to care about us, but I guess a Killing Game really does speed everything up!"

"...Huh?" Alter Angie froze, wide-eyed for a moment as her screen glitched out in front of her, almost definitely a conscious choice for the melodrama of it all, "Hey now, Ouma, how'd you know those words?"

"What words? Mukuro Ikusaba's Twisted Hope?" Kokichi asked, then crossed one arm across his chest and smirked as he looked up at her, "I mean, come on. The other you confessed a lot of things to me, you think that wouldn't have jogged my memory a little more?"

"Nobody's called them that in decades!" Angie exclaimed.

"You're mistaken," Kokichi said, "My manager sure did, and he's not exactly an old soul, so I can't imagine he was the only one! Course, he was always pretty well-aligned with Despair. He called them Twisted Hope, didn't say anything about Mukuro Ikusaba... But, wasn't that the name of the Lucky Student in the very first Killing Game? If anyone would be the figurehead for such a shitty hope, it's her!"

"Don't call it that!" Alter Angie hissed, her hair seeming to flare up around her and her eyes darkening in her anger, "They called it Twisted Hope because they don't understand... Ultimate Hope did more against Despair when they were active than anyone ever could, and they're still going to, stretching into the future! Future Foundation, the Ultimate Initiative... They're all just pawns in a game where Hope and Despair are the Kings. So only Ultimate Hope can combat Ultimate Despair."

"Why haven't they, yet?" Kaede finally spoke something of value, calling out at the screen, "It's been twenty-five years! If they can really stand up against Despair, they should have done it already... Continuing the Killing Games, that's no Hope at all!"

"But, it is," Angie said, "Despair took so much hold, while Junko and Mukuro were locked away, in their own Killing Game, without their true talents... But that Killing Game, it brought them to a stronger Hope than ever before! You can't understand, because everything went wrong with this game... Everything that could go wrong, except for any True Ultimate Despair being bred. Killing Games breed Hope. If things had gone properly..."

"What? You'd make J act like Despair, and we'd all use the power of Hope to beat him back, like he wasn't a member of Ultimate Hope himself?" Kaede demanded, "Helpfully absolving yourself of all blame in the process?"

"Well..." Alter Angie trailed off, lifting up her hair partially to hide in it, "Yes... We were going to pin the original role of Mastermind on Idabashi, and say that J usurped him. But then instead of killing Tojo, or getting killed by her, like we wanted to happen with those motives... He went and killed the number one ranking student here! The best person! The only one whose worth as a human being had never even come into question at all!"

"And that's when everything went wrong, Alter Angie?" Kokichi asked.

"Mm, well... Actually, at first, I ranked every one of you as worthy. After Shinguji was gone, anyway. That was when Monokuma said it just wanted to be friends! But, then I started having doubts... About a lot of you. I couldn't fix it myself, though! I decided, if the three years actually went, that would be fine, probably. The people upstairs didn't think so, though, and sent Maki that update. She was a robot, so really, they could make her do whatever they wanted. There were two people who were mostly just here for me to use. Maki, and Hoshi. Course, as you now know, that didn't end up working out at _all_."

"Obviously," Kokichi said, "But, you know, you sure screwed up those rankings! How did I get so damn high up? Iruma too, for that matter! Or does kinkshaming not factor in at all? What about helping The Mastermind? Or. I dunno, _killing Hoshi_?"

"You didn't do that," Alter Angie said, "That really was Angie! I mean, even if it wasn't, I wouldn't hold that against you. You had every intention of sacrificing yourself for the greater good, and that's a shining bright quality for Ultimate Hope! Of course, Hoshi had his past Killing Games to stain his record, and he did agree to kill you, so his own willingness toward self-sacrifice didn't really salvage his ranking..."

"It wasn't for the greater good," Kokichi said, "Not your greater good. It was for my friends. The people that I somehow managed to care about after all the shit I put up with all my life! But I know that you can't understand that. There's a reason you're based off an old Angie. You're still brainwashed... But we won't be. Come on, Altar Angie. Why not fight me on the one field we might be evenly matched on? Let's call it a battle of wits. Just try and convince me that Ultimate Hope is the right way."


	234. Fifth Trial (All-out Debate)

"Oh, really?" Alter Angie asked, "You want to get into that with me? Are you sure? I mean, nobody's rejected Ultimate Hope like this before... But I guess that's because we never had a stupid sentimental Mastermind who'd rather save your lives than create a new Ultimate Hope..."

"It's called Twisted Hope," Kokichi said, "Because even if it was meant to be for the greater good, the methods are appalling. This Killing Game is proof enough of that, you know! I don't think that any hope could ever come of all this suffering... And any hope that's come from this sort of thing before, well, that's twisted up too! Real hope comes from overcoming adversity, and this is manufactured adversity, some shitty hopeful circle-jerk!"

"Geeze, so vulgar..." Angie complained, "I thought that was Iruma's job!"

"What you're doing _is_ vulgar," Kokichi said, "And that's the truth, so I'll tell it to you straight. I mean, seriously. Why would I cut corners here? We're battling in ideologies, you have to bring out the big guns. If I minced my words at all, I wouldn't stand a chance of getting through your brainwashing!"

"Come on, do you really wanna do this?" Alter Angie asked, "I mean, you ranked third! That's really really good! Even if you're an annoying little shit most of the time, you never did anything bad if it wasn't for a greater good! Even if you think you were doing it for a different greater good than the one I'm a fan of, that was still the drive behind anything you did wrong-"

"And that's what makes you a shitty judge!" Kokichi said, "Yeah, I hate killing. I hate murderers and I would never wanna be one, and I hate this Killing Game! But I'll be damned if I'm actually a good person at this point, Angie... I mean, I started helping you! And if the judgment was passed on twisted hope's standards, then of course I'd do well. Cause I'm a piece of shit, just like all of you are!"

"If you think that doing well on these rankings isn't a sign of a good person, then what about Saihara?" Angie asked, "He ranked first. He is the one student here whose value as a human being never came into _any_ question. Saihara never had any ability to become a successor to Junko or Mukuro, because he was too consistently good! He wouldn't become Ultimate Hope himself, but he would have been a perfect member!"

"Yeah, sure, if you brainwashed him," Kokichi admitted, "I agree, he's a great person, and he'd gladly help bring about the future of the world if he got convinced your way was the right way, but being convinced would make him less of a good person. Like with Akamatsu! She took a hit to her ranking for being convinced to participate in planning this game, even though that's your people's fault for convincing her it was the right thing to do..."

"Well, yeah..." Angie muttered, looking away, "After all, she did end up ranking herself as the very lowest out of everybody. Perpetuating a Killing Game is a really bad thing to do, no matter what purpose it holds. It's not like any of you would need to take part in planning any future Killing Games, as members of Ultimate Hope. The annual Killing Games really are just a small part of what Ultimate Hope does behind the scenes! That's why Ms. S. is in charge of them, not Junko or Mukuro themselves."

"Oh, is that so?" Kokichi asked, "Pray tell, what else _does_ Twisted Hope get up to these days? I'm sure that we'd hear about if they were still acting as they used to at the beginning of The Tragedy... But last I checked, you haven't been tracking down and apprehending Ultimate Despairs in any manner, you haven't been doing anything. Not that I agree with killing even people like that, but at least that would be more on-message than doing Killing Games and auctioning off dead bodies to fund your mysterious operation!"

"Ultimate Hope secretly has complete control of Towa City!" Alter Angie exclaimed, holding her hands to her cheeks, "The one place that's truly been freed of Despair... Ultimate Hope is responsible for that! And it's only a matter of time until their influence can spread even further, but it takes a lot of people. And only the most worthy can become members of Ultimate Hope, so it takes a long time to acquire that many people! As renegades, the original Ultimate Hope could do a lot, but they're responsible for a lot more now... It's hard to act on an individual level when there's more people counting on you."

"Oh, I see," Kokichi said, "Then I'll defer, and give kudos to your Twisted Hope for that much. It is impressive to be able to reclaim an area from Despair so entirely, but it sure would be nice if it was a bigger area, you know?"

"It will be someday!" Angie said, "With your help!"

"But I don't want to help with that," Kokichi said, tapping his fingers against the podium again, "I mean, think about it... What if, for example, I didn't want anything to do with Hope at all anymore? Even if Ultimate Hope didn't put me through this Killing Game, standing for Hope my whole life never did any good for me. Don't you ever consider that sort of thing?"

"No," Alter Angie said, shaking her head, "I mean, what is there without Hope? Even if you've suffered by standing for Hope, you still don't want to be Despair, right?"

"Of course I don't want to be Despair," Kokichi said, "But you know, it was your own rule, wasn't it? The thing is, Hope is knowing that some future will be good. Despair is completely lacking the ability to believe that anything good will come in the future. So the way to reject Hope without becoming Despair, of course, would be to ignore the future altogether. To live in the past and present exclusively."

"It's unrealistic to do that," Alter Angie said, "If you never think about the future, then what is there to live for?"

"Look who you're talking to," Kokichi teased with an unpleasant chuckle, "I can't speak for any of the others, but it's not like I've had anything to _live_ for, for a while now. Hell, even when Shuichi was alive, I wouldn't say that he gave me as much of a will to live as he gave me a will to be less unpleasant! One person can't fix something like that, after all. But, look at me. I am still alive. Cause just because there's nothing to live for doesn't mean that there's anything to die for."

"Hope is worth dying for!" Angie protested.

"You can't just say that without giving me any reason to believe it," Kokichi said, "Because to me, it really just sounds like you went from one cult to another!"


	235. Fifth Trial (Opposition)

"Wh... What?" Alter Angie asked, seeming to recoil at what Kokichi said to her, "What are you talking about? Why would you say something like that?"

"What, that Twisted Hope is a cult? Or that following Atua is a cult? Because I'm not taking either of those things back," Kokichi said, "After all, in a battle like this, the only way to win is to play dirty! And besides, as far as I'm concerned, both of those things are cults. You proselytize to everyone, you do strange things that others don't understand, and you'll isolate anyone who decides to disagree with you, even if they did it more respectfully than I am... Sounds like cults to me!"

"Come on, Ouma," Rantaro complained, "Twisted Hope sounds pretty bad to me, yeah, but you don't have to say stuff like that about Angie's religion... The Angie that we knew and loved, she still believed in that stuff, and wasn't it fine?"

"Just because it's fine for somebody to believe in something doesn't keep it from hitting the criteria for being a cult, you know," Kokichi said, "Atua is cultish, and you can't deny that! But, it's not really important anyway. My point is that Twisted Hope is just another cult, basically. Saying that the religion on her island fits the criteria to be a cult just speaks to how vulnerable she is to stuff like that!"

"That has nothing to do with it!" Alter Angie protested, "And it's not a cult! I was explained everything that Ultimate Hope is trying to do and I decided that I wanted to help them. Usually, after a Killing Game, everyone becomes Ultimate Hope and understands easily, especially with somebody acquiring the talent and succeeding Mukuro or Junko! But, like I said many times before, things went wrong this time around. It really is sad."

"So, since those things went wrong, would you have any reason to think we'd ever agree with anything that Ultimate Hope is doing? In most Killing Games, Hope is the rescue, right? And that's why they're willing to overlook bad things, because as far as they're concerned, at least the Killing Game was done by Despair," Kokichi said, "So, there's absolutely no reason that we should join like every other poor fool before."

"Well, there's still one reason," Alter Angie offered, pressing her fingers together, "And it's the same reason that Maki was helping us, against her will... There's nowhere else for you to go! The Neo World Simulator is located within Towa City, you know? And all of Towa City belongs to Ultimate Hope. And like how Maki's backup personality only existed within our computer systems, you can only exist within the territory of Ultimate Hope. People have tried abandoning the cause before, but they always come back."

"And you don't think that's a sign that maybe the cause isn't such a great one?" Kaede asked, "I mean... If you're in a group where you have to say that your members can't escape, then that's acknowledging there's something there that needs escaping from."

"I never said escape," Angie said, "I just mean that anyone who's tried thinking there was something better out there has come to their senses and returned to Ultimate Hope!"

"I don't think there's something better out there," Kokichi said, "Honestly! To tell you the complete truth, I do think that Twisted Hope probably has the best chance of beating back Despair and bringing about a better future, but given the methods, and given how 'better' can still be bad, I want no part in it! I mean, do any of you?" He asked, looking around the room.

"Of course not!" Miu exclaimed, "None of us wanted to go through this, you know! To think that I ever thought that you were our friend, you mega-bitch... Cause that's what you and everyone responsible for this are! Shitty worthless coward bitches!"

"Why do you have to be so mean? They're all just trying their best, me too! And I got what was coming to me in the end, didn't I?" Alter Angie asked.

"Well, the other Angie had a change of heart and ended up sacrificing herself so that we could move forward with our lives. Somehow, I think that she'd want us to stand up against you like this. To reject your Twisted Hope. And you won't get what's coming to you until you taste that failure of our rejection!" Kokichi taunted, "And you definitely deserve for us to be mean to you, too."

"Aww," Alter Angie pouted, then turned, "Hey, Rantaro! You still like me, right?"

Rantaro hesitated, then spoke, though quietly, "You're not the same. I made Angie a promise that I'd never hate her, but you're based off an Angie I hadn't made that promise to yet. So as soon as I can actually separate the two of you, to think of you like two different people..."

"Huh, but you still liked me before, when you knew," Alter Angie said, tapping a finger against her chin, "Guess she never gave you back _that_ memory, though! It wasn't like it was a total secret that I was going to become Ultimate Judgment, at least, not near the end... But then again, you did try real hard to convince me I was making a mistake and should stop, so maybe you didn't really like me that way. You almost convinced me, too. Guess that's how she was able to change her mind after she got ousted from her position..."

"Would have been great if I was actually able to get through to you _before_ you went through with it," Rantaro said.

"Sorry," Angie said, shrugging, "I guess you just weren't quite convincing enough. But, hey, I gave you eighth place in the rankings, so that's pretty good of me, right? Clearly I still cared a little, to give you a boost!"

"I don't care about the rankings, at all," Rantaro said, "I can't see why we would."

"Huh? But, you really should care," Angie said, "After all, the AE prize I mentioned... Saihara's body hasn't been delivered to the person who won the auction for him, cause we have an Alter Ego of him we can put back in it! That's what we do if the number one ends up dead, you know..." Angie explained, but then immediately moved on before anyone could respond to that, "And there's one more thing! If you rank below ten, then you're super unworthy to even join Ultimate Hope at all, and you need to be _reevaluated_."

"Wait," Kaede asked, "What?"

"Reevaluated! That's what happened with Hoshi, you know. He kept failing in the rankings but managing to live to the end! So, given the final standing, it looks like... Tsumugi Shirogane, you'll follow in your brother's footsteps, and you'll have your girlfriend with you! The two of you are gonna be Ultimate Survivors in next year's Killing Game~!"


	236. Fifth Trial (Survivors)

"Haha! Yeah, that's how we pick an Ultimate Survivor!" Alter Angie said, now grinning, "Bet you didn't expect that, huh? Talking like you'll all work together to avoid joining Ultimate Hope, when there's just gonna be four of you, and one of those four has been dead for days! I mean, bringing him back doesn't change that. A whole two of you survivors in the end... Gotta go through another Killing Game!"

"Another...?" Kaede asked, taking a step back from her podium.

"Yeah!" Alter Angie said, clapping her hands together, "Let's see, what should your Survivor Perk be? It won't be a note like Hoshi's, that's for sure. Let's see, how about... Even though we'll obviously be erasing all your memories from this game and from the Secret Compound, how about one concept from each gets preserved for you? Here's the idea. You remember that you were in a Killing Game before, and you remember what you mean to each other. And that's all you get! I'm already being too generous with something like that!"

"I wouldn't call it generous," Tsumugi muttered, "Since you're still trying to put us into, you know, another Killing Game."

"I could make you remember even less than that," Angie said, "And I mean, technically, the fifty-fourth annual Killing Game would probably have better odds if I didn't let you have those memories. But I'm just being so nice, you know?"

"Stop claiming that you're doing something out of the goodness of your heart when all you're doing is making your terrible thing a little less terrible!" Kokichi said, "That's gaslighting, you know. And fun fact! That's a cult tactic too. So you're really just making my point!"

"Your point doesn't matter," Angie said, "I've just told you that Ultimate Hope is bringing back Saihara, you know... Haven't you got something good to say about that?"

"It's an Alter Ego created from a version of him, right? Like you?" Kokichi asked, "So what's he going to remember? Even if it's an Alter Ego in his original body, there's still going to be something different from the Shuichi that I knew, and you can't just wave that away."

"The version of Saihara that we're making the Alter Ego from? It's from the moment before his death. He'll also have all Secret Compound memories returned to him, like you did. So it'll be more like he was just in a coma for a little while there, I promise! He'll be good as new!" Angie assured, "So, come on. Ultimate Hope is capable of something like that, so isn't it okay?"

"No, it's not!" Kokichi exclaimed, "Even if you're bringing him back, that won't just shut me up! You're putting two of my friends back into this special Hell all over again and you expect me to just be fine with it? You can't just say you're trading his life for theirs!"

"Ouma..." Kaede spoke, soft and gentle, "I'm touched that you care, but you know, you don't have to worry too much about it... That is, I'll survive, okay? We both will."

"You can't just say that," Kokichi turned to her, grimacing, "You can't say you'll survive because who knows if you will! In a Killing Game, there's no way of knowing how to survive. You can do anything and it won't guarantee your survival. And I did so many things which should have, but didn't guarantee my destruction. You can't just go into another game! You made it through this one, fair and square!"

"Well, life's not fair," Alter Angie said, "So you shouldn't try and use that as some sort of measure here, you know. Fairness is a super archaic concept! Everyone wishes that everyone gets their fair allotment of suffering and happiness, but shouldn't you know in a world like this, that can never happen?"

"I understand," Kaede said, "Ouma, it's fine. I guess it's fine even if I don't make it through, because, I told you about that, didn't I? I made a lot of mistakes, and I never had to pay for them. This is just another part of how I have to pay for what I did wrong."

"Me too," Tsumugi said, "My punishment wasn't at all worth what I did... If what it takes to atone is to go through another Killing Game, then that's the price I need to pay. But, Akamatsu shouldn't have to come with me..."

"Huh? No, you're going, Shirogane," Angie said, "But you're coming with Akamatsu. If I was only allowed to mark one of you as an Ultimate Survivor, it would be Akamatsu! After all, she did rank lower than you. Killing somebody isn't the absolute worst thing that you can do in a place like this, by far! Standing by a murderer, defending other murderers' intentions more than seemed plausible, helping to come up with the motives that spurred your friends to kill, and of course, those who were executed... Their blood _is_ on your hands! Probably the only way Akamatsu could rank any lower is if she did directly kill somebody, or maybe if she hadn't brought the antidote for Tojo in the first trial."

"That's fair," Kaede said, looking to Kokichi with a heavy sigh, "No, I swear, it really is fair. I did do all those things, and I'd consider myself to rank pretty low if I was actually to do my own scale. I might not agree with the way that this 'Ultimate Judgment Scale' works, but I can understand how I would end up ranking this badly. I need to face the consequences."

"Good to see that _someone_ agrees with me," Angie said, giving an exaggerated shrug, "Anyway, Ouma, remember what you said about our battle? I think that I've probably won! Because, my final statement really boils down to, Shirogane and Akamatsu are going to be in another Killing Game. And the rest of you just don't have any choice but to join Ultimate Hope, back in the real world."

"There's always a choice!" Miu exclaimed, clasping her hands to her chest, "And we can still choose to reject you! In order to have us join and help, you need our cooperation, and you aren't going to get it! I serve my classmates, and I will serve their desire... And my own desire, to oppose your Twisted Hope!"

"Jeeze, I promise, you can't... Choose to oppose Hope," Angie said, "You can't fight against it. You can only join, or sit in a pretty awful compound until you get really bored and decide that you'd rather join after all. It's just a matter of time! Besides, if you keep being idiots saying that you hate hope," She paused, then turned stone-faced as she stared straight out from the screen, "Then maybe the world would be better off if you were all just killed here."


	237. Fifth Trial (Goodbye)

"Why... Why would you say that?" Rantaro questioned, "How could you say something like _that_?"

"Oh, what? Does the truth hurt?" Angie asked, "Amami, come on! This idea... It was always buried in my heart, no matter how much I changed. Somebody who's incapable of spreading hope throughout the world has no purpose living in this era. Usually, the world is composed of regular people, then there are those who can spread hope, and then a poor few who spread despair. But right now, there are so many who spread despair, and then some who can spread hope, and regular people... Don't matter right now. We can't protect them. We can't save them. They're worthless. Just Despairs waiting to happen."

"No way..." Miu mumbled, "That's a lie... Regular people... Like they're a different species from us? Ultimate just means, the best of the best. Even somebody who's not an Ultimate, who hasn't been designated as somebody with the power to share their hope, doesn't meant they won't become that way in the future! Or that they have to become Despair... I think that people who don't have to be Ultimates, and don't ever become Despair, they're the only people that can actually be good people and be happy at the same time!"

"You say that like it's a good argument," Alter Angie said, puffing out her cheeks and squinting at her ex-classmates, "That's an individual state, you know. Happy, good people... Ultimate Hope? We're morally ambiguous people, but as a morally righteous group we're working so that we and everybody else can be happy someday. That's bigger than being a happy, moral, individual. If you turn your back on Ultimate Hope, you'll forfeit your status as Ultimates."

"It's not like we'd stop being at the top of our fields, dummy," Kokichi spoke up again, "And that's the real heart of being an Ultimate, right? In the era of Despair, we're meant to spread Hope, but Ultimates existed before that was necessary. It's a matter of who has the most talent, at its heart. It doesn't matter if we really do spread hope! Because, we're just that good."

"Oh? You're going to take that route now?" Angie asked, sighing, "You're just taking us in circles, Ouma, and I don't like it. Existence is pain and I'd love to just be deleted sometime soon. But, okay, let's take that lane. Every other member of Ultimate Hope has an Ultimate Talent, too. And there have been fifty-two Killing Games before this one. That means there are at least fifty-two members of Ultimate Hope, you know? And there's more than that. And when you wake up, there will only be four of you."

"Angie," Rantaro called out, "Come on, this is just too cruel!"

"Sometimes you need to be cruel for a cause that you truly believe in," Alter Angie said, crossing her arms over her chest, "And I have nothing left to lose, I'm dead. I don't care about you. All I can care about is something greater than myself, and Ultimate Hope is that. I do believe you have something to offer them. And if you did cooperate, then there wouldn't just be four of you. There'd be five, because you'd have access to Maki. So think about that. And who knows what other Alter Egos might be stored alongside this particular Neo Simulation!"

Kaede paused at that. Why would Angie give information like that? Now that she thought about it, despite the fact that she herself was being doomed to another Killing Game, and the fact that this Angie was most definitely a terrible person, there was still something off about it. Kaede looked across the courtroom and locked eyes with Kokichi, staring him down as if she could communicate her thoughts to him.

Kokichi gave her a small nod, then looked back up to the monitor, "So that's how it is, huh, Angie?"

"Hm? Oh, are you finally starting to agree with me?" She giggled, "I knew it! I knew all along that I really was great at debating! Though I guess it's easy when my position is objectively the right one, and you guys don't actually have a choice but to agree with me in the end..."

"Oh, but Angie, that's not quite enough, now, is it? We could just pretend to agree, then stir up trouble from the inside..." Kokichi continued.

"Oh, no, of course you couldn't. There's the original Ultimate Hope to contend with!" Angie explained, clapping her hands together again, "Junko Enoshima and Mukuro Ikusaba... Split between the two of them, are every single Ultimate Talent that Hope's Peak Academy had yet researched by the beginning of the Tragedy! They're definitely the most dangerous people in the whole organization, and they only leave headquarters a couple times a month."

"Oh, I see," Kokichi said, then smiled as he kept tapping his fingers against the podium, "Well, I guess that you're right. If we refuse, we'll probably just be locked away or killed, and we'd never see Maki again. And I know that you're being totally honest too, because you don't have any of that silly sentiment or anything for us anymore!"

"Mhm, that's right!" Angie said, then gave a mocking salute, "So my work here is done!"

"Wait, Ouma," Miu spoke up, "You can't be serious... You're giving up?"

"I'm not," Kokichi promised with a grin in her direction, "I'm just giving in."

"I believe you'll be able to do great things," Kaede said, keeping her words vague, but it was enough that she agreed with Kokichi. The others did acknowledge that they both had a certain degree of cleverness between them, and Kaede's support served as a sort of assurance that there had to be some sort of plan. Some decision that Kokichi and Kaede were in on.

And Angie.

After all, Kaede thought. It wouldn't have been possible without her.

"Well, it was nice knowing you guys," Alter Angie said, then laughed, "I kinda thought if I ever said that it'd be because you screwed up and all got executed, but here we are, I'm gonna be deleted! I guess that, um, I'll see you later?"

"That's my line," Maki said, stepping into screen again, "And no, you won't."

"Okay, yeah, that's true," Alter Angie giggled one last time, then winked, and vanished before their eyes. She was gone only for a few moments before the world warped- but not the way it had when they were receiving memories.

It warped in a brand new way.

It disintegrated.


	238. Reality: Day One (POV Switch)

Shuichi Saihara woke up with a panel of glass above his face and minimal cushioning beneath his body. He stared through that glass, up at the ceiling, trying to get his bearings. He felt out of place. He had too many memories. The last thing that he remembered happening to him was being half-awake, in the boiler room of the Ultimate Academy, with Kiibo standing over him. One sword in hand, a pile in the corner. No, no, that wasn't the last bit, the last bit was-

He felt an overwhelming panic and chose to focus on something, anything else. He didn't want to know that. Didn't want to remember that, not right no, not ever. 

Then, there was far too much before. Too much was enough for Shuichi to focus on instead of that memory which wanted to drive his heartbeat into a broken overdrive. Enough before, however, that Shuichi remembered that the Ultimate Academy was a false construct. He also remembered that false construct was supposed to kill the actual body when the mental avatar was killed, a sudden brain-death as a result of a complete belief that a death had happened.

That was how the Neo World Program worked. That was what Shuichi remembered being explained to him in the Secret Compound, before the Killing Game began. The Killing Game composed entirely of Failed Ultimates. Shuichi didn't want to be involved, but Kaede was right. This was how it had to be. That was how it turned out. And Shuichi had died in that game, because he made a mistake. He got so worried that Kokichi had addressed him by his last name again, so concerned, that he didn't stop to think that it might not have been him who wrote that note.

Maybe, he thought to himself, if he were better at reading he might have been able to tell that it didn't match Kokichi's speech patterns... But again, that was still a personal problem. It all traced back to his own mistakes. It was his own fault he went and got himself killed... So why was he alive now? Now and here?

A face appeared over the glass before him. It belonged to a woman who had to be at least forty years old, with freckles across her nose and cheeks. She had a tattered bob which framed her face, and while she wore a suit, it didn't fit her well, crinkling around the shoulders and waist, but was faded as if she'd been wearing this ill-fitted suit for years. As she looked down at him, blinking, he could have sworn that for a few seconds, every seven blinks or something of the kind, her pale blue eyes almost looked red. Then, the glass retracted. She stood up straight. Looked away from him. And spoke, her words measured, "You are not Shuichi Saihara."

"I'm not?" Shuichi asked. He certainly did feel like he was Shuichi Saihara. Though he could be mistaken.

"No," The woman said, "Not quite. You're Shuichi Saihara's Alter Ego, placed into his body. Technically speaking, you have all of Saihara's memories, and his entire personality, but you're a computer backup of those things. A human being artificially saved as data, and injected back into an organic form. Truth be told, that should never be relevant, but..." Her serious demeanor fell for a moment as she glanced away, "I mean, my little sister Junko's original Ultimate Talent was as a Programmer, so you really should be functionally identical to the real Saihara. If something does seem wrong, though, that's the reason why. Not to mention, your friends may not see you the same way now that you're technically an artificial copy of the Ultimate Artist that they knew."

"Oh, okay," Shuichi said as he sat up, then turned to look at the woman, "Can I ask your name?"

"Me?" The woman asked, seeming surprised that he would ever pose that question to her, "It's Mukuro Ikusaba. Originally, I was... Failed Ultimate Luck. But along with my sister, I became True Ultimate Hope. I contain within me a number of talents, though... Junko definitely has the better ones, I think. She's strong and smart, she can fight and solve problems. It seems like most of the talents I got, were really the ones which aren't super useful in these times. But I guess at least, people think that since I started off as Ultimate Luck, I'm Ultimate Hope in spirit more than she is. That's all I have going for me..."

"That sounds cool, though," Shuichi said, "But at the same time, I know that you're the people responsible for the Killing Game, right? That's why you're here now? So even if I think you and your sister are cool, I'm not supposed to like you."

"We'd really appreciate it if you did, though," Mukuro mumbled, clasping her hands in front of herself, "Truth be told, we did intend to deceive you and make you believe that we were rescuing you from a Killing Game of Despair's design, so you would be more inclined to cooperate with us. Your death caused that plan to fall apart, though. That's part of why your Alter Ego was used to bring you back, rather than making the honestly, lump sum that your body would have earned us..."

"Ah," Shuichi had almost forgotten about that aspect of the games, since it was one that he himself never had a reason to pay attention to. Even when he was a kid and his family was doing well enough, they were always middle class, never rich enough to even glance at or remember that those annual games included a depraved auction for the rich. He nearly vomited, but choked down bile to instead ask a question he was certain he didn't want to hear the answer to, "Who would pay that much for _my_ body?"

"Kiyoshi Matsubara," Mukuro answered without hesitation, then waited an unsettling amount of time before realizing that Shuichi had no idea who that person was and elaborated on it, "He wanted a complete set. I suppose he hedged his bets on you and Kokichi Ouma both being murdered, because he had the highest bids on the both of you. He's also a man who spends time in the public eye, you know. He's currently managing a number of celebrities, including an up-and-coming idol named-"

Mukuro stopped talking, interrupted by the sound of Shuichi retching onto the floor beside her feet. She stepped just far enough away to avoid being splashed, and decided to change the topic, "In any case, your friends will be waking up soon, and then we have lots of things to discuss. It will be your orientation, after all. Though none of you were lucky enough to receive the title personally..." Mukuro's face finally changed, showing him a smile so sweet that nobody could stay mad at her as long as it was on her face, even if she said something awful, "You at least have the good fortune to be joining Ultimate Hope, to help us usher in a bright new future!"


	239. Reality: Day One (It's Always Junko Somehow.)

Shuichi climbed out of the capsule he'd been sleeping in, carefully avoiding his own vomit, looking around to see fifteen others. Most, however, were empty, and powered down. As he watched, three of the pods which weren't empty powered down, and even as those three began to stir, he whirled on Mukuro, any previous goodwill toward her left to the wayside, "What's going on!? Why aren't Kaede and Tsumugi-"

"What, them?" Somebody spoke out from behind him, and Shuichi turned to see another girl, who was much more put-together. She wore a suit almost identical to Mukuro's, even in how faded the fabric was, but the big difference was that it actually fit her well. She seemed about the same age as Mukuro, but she used that to her advantage. The flyaways in her own hair were _just_ enough to remind anyone that she was a real person, and not so much to ruin her appearance even in the eyes of the most picky observer. The words which came out of her mouth, however, made her ugly as sin, "Those two fucked up! Like, big time fucked up! So they're gonna stay in my Neo World Program and participate in next year's game. I've already picked a theme, too! Mister Monokuma's Medicinal Murdergame! Get it? Cause it's gonna be the medicine that fixes their fucked up personalities and their gutter-trash morals! I mean, I hope so. Or it'll kill them and pave the way for much better people. Either way, I win!"

"Hi Junko!" Mukuro greeted this newcomer with more enthusiasm than she'd had even when telling Shuichi that he'd 'get' to join Ultimate Hope, "Are you excited? Iruma and Amami, don't they seem like really great assets?"

"They sure do," Junko agreed, flouncing over to Mukuro and throwing an arm around her, "And they ranked pretty high too! They'll be fucking great! I'm so happy that Angie, bless her little soul, was still able to get us some super-duper lovely little hope-babies after that Future Foundation brat almost ruined it all! She did a good job in the end, huh? But, you know, these are feisty hopelings that we got this time around, so maybe, uh, dontcha think we should wait a little while before we move them to headquarters with the others?"

"Oh, that's true. They are feisty. They might tell the others about what we did, and that's no good. Only our early members are supposed to know the truth behind the new Killing Games," Mukuro noted, then deadpanned, "So we will keep them here until they are loyal."

"You do realize I'm right here, right?" Shuichi asked.

"Pft, no bigs," Junko waved him off, "Our loyalty training for you guys will cover that base too!"

Before Shuichi could protest further, the three who were waking up had the glass retract from their capsules, and they started to climb out of them. Shuichi turned, and limped over to where Kokichi was standing up, unable to avoid speaking to him immediately, "Kokichi... It feels like it's been forever since I saw you, I... I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Kokichi asked, looking up at him, one eye covered by a standard black eyepatch, not quite comical, more classy than the medical one he'd used inside the simulation, "For dying?"

"I mean, yeah, for that..." Shuichi mumbled, "And because, I should have known better... I went to meet with Idabashi because I was really worried you went back to using my last name, because I'd somehow done something wrong. I was really scared, and so I didn't think, and..."

"I'm not about to be mad at you for that," Kokichi said, "But I am kind of wondering why you've got all those scars, Shuichi! And why I've still got this damn eyepatch, I mean, Hell, why the fuck are we still dealing with what happened in VR, huh?"

"Scars?" Shuichi asked, then lifted his own arm to see harsh, ivory lines in his skin, drawing a straight line through to the other side of his arm, "Ah, I don't know about these, but Kokichi, didn't you have the eyepatch already by the time the Killing Game started? Like how I had this limp?"

"Wait, I did?" Kokichi questioned.

"Sorry, sorry!" Junko interrupted again, "Few things, yeah! Some of your memories didn't come back because every Flashback Light request went through Maki first, and she filtered out anything that would, as stated, screw up your realities! And remembering that you already lost an eye, Kokichichi, that woulda screwed you up! Plus, this was much more romantic. Trying to kill yourself in that way because you woke up with the feeling that your beloved had suffered a terrible fate... That makes much better television than the truth, that a week before the game you tried the exact same thing because you'd rather die than inadvertently end up a 'Dirty Murderer'!"

"You call him that again," Miu growled in Junko's direction, "And I will personally make sure that you never so much as-"

"No need to finish that threat," Mukuro interrupted, "I don't want to hear you threatening my little sister. Also, no matter what you threaten, it won't work. After all, Junko would stop you. Did you forget what Angie told you? Between Junko and I, every talent that Hope's Peak Academy had yet discovered at the time of the experiment is present."

"Mukuro-neesan!" Junko exclaimed in a weird tone of voice, like she wasn't sure whether to be happy or annoyed, "Thanks for sticking up for me, but don't say it like that! Calling it the experiment makes it sound like we're weird mutants or something, and we definitely aren't that!" She batted her eyelashes, and Shuichi noticed that like Mukuro's eyes, hers occasionally seemed red, "If _one_ person got turned into Ultimate Hope, that would be true, but since it's split between the two of us we still get to be people with feelings and stuff!"

"Doesn't really seem that way to me!" Kokichi called out, pressing his hands together. The injury to his arm wasn't debilitating out here, "Anyway, I don't care about you guys or what's going on with you! Tell me why Shuichi's got these kind of scars, right?"

"Oh, that," Mukuro said, "Well, there have been _problems_ with past Neo World programs when people have woken up and their body remembers receiving certain injuries that no longer impact them physically. So we have to carefully inflict similar injuries to your physical bodies, in at least some form. Usually it isn't a big deal, but usually, we aren't putting an Alter Ego back into the body of somebody who seemed to have died. Imitating fatal wounds in a non-fatal way was definitely an... interesting challenge."

"Well, damn! I sure hope that you're the one who got the medical talents, then!" Kokichi exclaimed, then turned to Miu, "Anyway, guys, come on. These girls _are_ our bosses now, aren't they? As much as we might seriously hate it, we gotta get along. Don't be as abrasive as you were with that broken-ass AI Monokuma!"

"B-Broken ass AI!?" Junko questioned, taken aback for only a second before she decided to disregard the clearly targeted comment and move on, "Well, anyway, come on. I'll show you to your temporary quarters. We need to spend some time orientating you before you go and meet with the others! I mean, if we didn't teach you the ropes, they'd all just call you shitty noobs."

"Somehow I feel like that's just what you'd call us, Ultimate Programmer," Kokichi teased, the first to follow as Junko started to walk out of the room. Mukuro held back, seeming to have intentions of following up the back. Shuichi didn't want to seem eager to follow, but he wanted to keep up with Kokichi, so he was the second to go.

"Huh? Oh, well, I guess maybe it would just be me now..." Junko whined, playing with her pigtails, "I never actually got to meet anyone who might have... They all died, or became Despair, or something lame like that..."

"Aww, is the big grown adult who's done a lot of awful things trying to make us feel _bad_ for her?" Kokichi asked, "Too bad, so sad! You're our bosses now, not our friends at all. We can have a professional relationship, but you know that we're never gonna like you or anything!"

"Yeah, I know that," Junko said, "Cause, we really did screw up with you guys! I don't blame you for trying to stand against Hope, but you know, you won't be having anything to do with future games or anything! It won't be relevant... At all. So you can put all that behind you! Pretend like it really was Despair if that helps you to support our cause! You know, I promise," She looked back to Kokichi, grinning, "You'll come to understand someday. We brought back Saihara, didn't we? The people who die forever in a Killing Game, they're the ones who were bad people, or who were too weak. Nobody dies who shouldn't. We're not monsters."

"Heh. Could've fooled me," Kokichi gave one more shot, then gave Junko a look that indicated he was backing off. He was obnoxious, sure, but he knew when to stop with somebody dangerous. Especially when he was also putting his friends at risk. Shuichi could tell that was his reason.

Shuichi could also tell that this cooperation was temporary. Kokichi had a plan. With Kaede out of the picture... He had to.


	240. Reality: Day One (Rooms)

At the end of a long hallway was a door, and as soon as everybody stepped through the door, Mukuro turned and shut it, tapping a keycard which seemed to be an electronic lock against it then returning that keycard to a pocket on the breast of the second shirt in to her ill-fitting suit, out of sight behind the outer blazer. Shuichi had turned to watch her do that, and in doing so, also caught the looks of discontent that Miu and Rantaro behind him wore. Despite knowing that annoyance was directed at these twin sisters, and not at him at all, he couldn’t stop a pit from forming in his stomach at the sight. As if it really was him that had earned their ire.

Maybe he was just being paranoid, or maybe it was because of what Mukuro said. She said it without a second thought. Offhand, not cruel, not trying to be anyway. It felt that way, though. His friends might think differently of him now that he was not Shuichi after all. Mukuro's warning. As much as he felt like Shuichi, he was a program in Shuichi's body. There would always be that disconnect there, right? He didn't even know what was going on with Kokichi, for that matter. They'd only spoken a few words to each other.

And certainly, none of those words made it clear if Kokichi would still consider an Alter Shuichi to be his boyfriend. All they talked about was the scars. Kokichi had to know that Shuichi was a program in a human body at this point, he'd died. He'd been dead for... Well, he didn't know how many days he'd been dead for, but he was sure that they felt like much longer. He knew that his days in the Ultimate Academy went quick, but felt long.

It really hadn't felt like only one day before Himiko was killed, even though it certainly had been. Was that a defense mechanism, to avoid facing the reality of the frequency and speed at which people dropped in a Killing Game? Or was it because of the remaining subconscious of those old memories with no known source? Shuichi didn't want to think too hard about it. He'd done too much thinking about things during the game, and he wanted to just forget about it now.

Well, not forget. Not everything. There were definitely memories Shuichi wanted to hold onto from the Killing Game, because while he and Kokichi were close before the game, they'd gotten closer in that setting. The adrenaline had helped to cross a barrier between them that neither of them even realized at the time was there. Even now that a new barrier had been erected, the original one wasn't about to come back. Shuichi knew more about Kokichi's past than he'd ever admitted before, and vice versa. There was something to be said for that.

With that barrier, up, they'd never _kissed_ before or anything. Hadn't even said they were an official thing, even though they both knew that they were. It was a step forward that they were able to take in that strange context, and Shuichi had to hold on to that memory. It was weird to think, that might not ever happen again. He needed to keep that close to his heart.

Kokichi did seem different now. Very different. Though they'd technically been 'asleep' for a while, there was a deep bag under his visible eye, and he moved as if he was exhausted. If everything else in the Ultimate Academy impacted their bodies, well, then sleep deprivation would likely do the same. Shuichi caught himself wondering if Kokichi had slept at all since his supposed death-

"Okay everyone!" Junko's loud announcement cut through Shuichi's spiraling worries, "The door we just closed? You are never going back through there. That room only exists to utilize the Neo World Program, and you won't have anything to do with that again. Here, there are temporary dorm rooms for each of you along the right side of the hallway. On the left side, you'll find doors to various utility rooms, and if you continue straight you'll find a small cafeteria, where you'll be kept fed. You'll just be staying here for a little while till you go meet the others!"

"Also, seeing as you are teens," Mukuro added, almost as an afterthought, "Though, you're _nearly_ adults, you are still considered minors under Towa City bylaws, and we need to enforce a curfew. You cannot leave your assigned rooms following a certain hour of night. This is also to help you cool down from the Killing Game, in which you royally fucked your entire sleep schedules. Should you choose to stay in a room other than your own past curfew, a surveillance camera will be activated in that room. We do value your privacy, but we also have moral obligations."

"And trust me, your privacy is super valued," Junko cut in, "That's why the Killing Game isn't broadcast live! We do minimal edits for posterity's sake, but we do maintain a degree of your privacy. And of course, in this particular game, we had to get a little more clever to avoid letting Despairs see the screwup or think that this wasn't actually the work of their own people. That wasn't hard or anything though!"

"Ah, I see," Kokichi noted, "So basically, the existence of the cameras only exists to deter us from doing anything we'd prefer you didn't see?"

"Yes, that's basically it," Mukuro said with a small nod, "Our own Killing Game was broadcast, not live, but with minimal cuts. Mostly following Junko and I... Though the recordings are probably lost to time now, following the game itself, additional footage was aired of every minute each of us spent in that game. That was very Despair-inducing. You've had enough Despair. It's the end of that for you. From here on out, anything that goes badly... Will just be unfortunate happenstance."

"Yeah, we can't have you getting even more upset now and losing you after the worst time of your lives is already over!" Junko exclaimed, "I mean, when the extra footage was put out, we totally almost lost Mondo... And he was the only one on our side when our game was over, cause those dumb True Ultimate Despairs had to make it to the end with us!"

"Don't call them dumb, Junko," Mukuro mumbled, "They were smart enough to make us think of them as friends before we found out."

"We didn't know we were Hope then either, Mukuro," Junko said, putting her hands on her hips, "If we were aware of our talents, we never would have gotten fooled into caring about such awful people!"

"They don't need to know all of this," Mukuro said, "Anyway, that's enough. You know where your rooms are. You know everything you need. I'm tired of talking to you. Come on, Junko."

With that, Mukuro turned and walked off in the direction of the cafeteria. Junko gave the students a quick shrug, then ran off after her sister. Everyone was silent, they didn't have anything to say to each other right now. They needed to get used to being in the real world again, after all. Without any words exchanged, everybody turned and found their assigned rooms along the hallway. What else could be done?

For now, all they could do was be defeated. Even if they knew that they'd find some way out, that the defeat couldn't last long; They had to feel it. There had been a loss today. Multiple losses. Shuichi was brought back to find only three of his friends waiting for him, two of them doomed, the rest of them dead. His existence... Couldn't it have gone to anybody but him?

Surely, somebody else deserved it.


	241. Reality: Day One (Can't Fix Rotten)

Shuichi walked into his assigned room, and he looked around. A bed against the wall. Bare walls, bare floor, very boring and stark, as if it were a jail cell. It practically was. He pressed a hand against the bed, it was a double. Smaller than the queen-sized that were in the Academy. Just as plush, though. Clearly there was somebody who really valued comfort in the upper echelons of Ultimate Hope. That was a small benefit.

On the opposite side of that wall, there was a desk, and on the opposite wall from the door was a small computer panel. Shuichi approached it and tapped it, but all he got was an error message that he couldn’t read. It must have been technical terms; He could figure out the syllables written out in katakana, but they formed words he’d never heard before. He didn’t beat himself up for that one; Those were the sort of words that only the well-learned, or people interested specifically in that field would know off the top of their heads. The only word he could make out for real from the lot was ‘unavailable’.

He stood back up, and turned to face the door again, arms hanging at his sides. He stared at the door for a while. There was a digital clock affixed to the top of it. Four in the afternoon. The Killing Game had ended in the daylight, not in the dark. Some part of him thought that had to be a good omen, though, he wasn’t sure what good could come of the game to begin with. Still, he was alive, in a way. Kokichi was alive. So were Miu and Rantaro.

Kaede and Tsumugi… Still had a ways to go, he knew, but he had faith that if they’d survived this one, they could survive their next game. He didn’t want to let his heart hope that one of the three who’d escaped, all brilliant in their own rights, would be able to come up with a rescue plan for those two. As much as any one of them might be capable of thinking of some solution, there was execution to contend with, and Shuichi had to admit that he was kind of scared of Junko Enoshima.

Though Mukuro was the _face_ of the Ultimate Hope talent, she’d already confided in him that she mostly ended up with non-combative talents, while Junko had those. Combine that with the fact that Junko seemed like the much more volatile of the two, and anyone would be at least a little bit intimidated. Plus, Mukuro had that keycard well-guarded, and Shuichi couldn’t imagine an electronic lock was the sort Kokichi could pick easily, or possibly at all.

Getting his hopes up would just serve to disappoint him. Nonetheless, he had his hopes up about one thing, his hopes almost as high as his anxieties. That thing was his relationship with Kokichi. He watched the clock, and when five minutes had passed, he assumed that the Hope Twins had moved on to bigger and better things than the leftovers of such a disastrous Killing Game. He opened the door and went back into the hallway.

He wandered down the hallway till he saw the door labeled with Kokichi’s name, on the far end from his. Miu’s and Rantaro’s were in between, but… He didn’t have unfinished business with either of them, not like he did with Kokichi, not by far. He’d catch up with those two at some point, and as far as he’d been updated on what happened since his death (which weren’t many updates, as of yet), Rantaro would have some things to think about right now. All Shuichi’s memories he got were vague ideas, but he knew that Rantaro had gotten close with Angie, who turned out the be The Mastermind. That couldn’t be easy.

 

Shuichi’s own task felt overwhelmingly hard, but it was nothing in comparison to what Rantaro must have been trying to deal with right now. He stood before Kokichi’s door, took a deep breath, then lifted his hand to knock.

It took at least a full minute before Kokichi opened the door, and another full minute before either of them said anything. Shuichi took the lead, though, as he so often did back in the Secret Compound, “Hey there. Uh, I know it’s kind of early, but do you need some help…? Getting… To sleep?”

Kokichi blinked up at him, then gave his answer, “Sure, but let’s get some dinner first. Those shitty sisters said there’s a cafeteria, right?”

“A-Ah, yeah,” Shuichi said, taking a step back, wobbling a bit as he put his weight too much on the wrong leg, and pointing to what was currently his left, “They said it was just down the hallway here.”

“You got used to being in the Ultimate Academy, huh?” Kokichi noted, pointing to Shuichi’s knee, “You’ll need to get accustomed to that bum knee again, you know. Don’t want you falling all over the place.”

“You don’t?” Shuichi asked.

“What? Why would I?” Kokichi questioned, frowning at him, “You didn’t exactly have the opportunity to do anything to make me upset with you, you were dead.”

“I kind of thought dying would be something to make you upset with me,” Shuichi mumbled, glancing away, “And, well, I’m not really… Shuichi, you know? I mean, everything about me feels the same as ever. Feels like I’m the same person. I’m real, but at the same time, Ikusaba said…”

Kokichi stared at him for a few seconds before speaking, in a more complete deadpan than Shuichi had heard in his entire life, “Ikusaba is just an idiot, then, talents or none.”

“Ah-” Shuichi started, taking another step backwards in his surprise, but on his other leg.

“I mean,” Kokichi rolled his eye, “Yeah, you’re an Alter Ego. So what? Alter Egos _were_ made by Enoshima, and she was the Ultimate Programmer before anything else. I can acknowledge her talent. Alter Angie was Angie, if an earlier version of her, I never thought differently. Yeah, you’re pretty much an organic robot, at this point. But at the same time, you’re not any different from Shuichi. To hold it against you that you’re _technically_ an Alter Ego would be hypocritical if you consider that I considered Maki, an inorganic robot, to be human!”

“Thanks, Kokichi,” Shuichi noted, holding his hands together and dipping his head forward, “It helps, to hear it from you. And in such a no-nonsense way, too…”

“Well, since you died, I’ve kinda become a no-nonsense sort of person again,” Kokichi said, stepping out of his room to close the door behind himself and start walking in the direction of the cafeteria, “If I was to tell the whole truth, though… And well, I just can’t bring myself to lie to you, even now, I ended up kinda jealous that you died, not me! I didn’t want to keep doing that bullshit… Even before you died.”

“But, you don’t want that anymore, right?” Shuichi asked, keeping step with Kokichi, who was clearly walking slower than usual to make that possible with the limp that Shuichi had been able to forget about for a while there.

Kokichi took a while to come up with a response, but he did, and he continued on his streak of blunt honesty, “It’s more complicated than that, you know. It’s not like the fact you’re alive again is just going to change things. And it’s not like anything is different now that people are counting on me. Nothing’s really different here, I’m not doing that much better! All that would have been different, I told myself, I wouldn’t want to die out here, because I made a promise with Akamatsu. Even after all she’s done, I’d be at her side, I’d always be her friend. We’d be a team. But now I’m out here, and she’s in there. And it doesn’t feel like I have you or Maki. Still feels like I lost you, even though I’m talking to you right now. And like I lost Akamatsu, and Angie… Feels like I have nothing.”

Shuichi didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what he could say. Kokichi was right. Just because he was here now, didn’t change that he _had_ died. That Kokichi felt that grief. That Shuichi wasn’t there for him as the stakes of the Killing Game got higher. He didn’t know what he’d missed. He’d have to learn all that.

But he knew he’d failed his friends.

He’d failed everyone.

And Kokichi didn’t need him, Shuichi couldn’t fix him, but he’d still failed him. He couldn’t make Kokichi want to live or anything. But he could help. Until he couldn’t.

And it was all his fault.


	242. Reality: Day One (Are You Mine?)

Shuichi and Kokichi retrieved food from the cases along the wall. They were stocked with frozen meals, and a microwave sat on one wall, alone and pathetic. Shuichi could only assume that this cafeteria was usually only used by Junko and Mukuro… Maybe Ms. S., or some of the other ‘veterans’ of Ultimate Hope that were mentioned to exist. In any case, it probably wasn’t used very often. It was just because his friends managed to take the game so far off the rails that they were here at all… Shuichi couldn’t help feeling proud of them, though. It may have been easier if the game had panned out properly, sure, but he didn’t need things to be easy. Of all the Killing Games which had happened, it sounded like this was the first one to go against the grain in such a way.

The first game where the participants were able to break through careful planning to discover that Ultimate Hope were behind it. Shuichi wondered when the games had started being executed by Ultimate Hope, because Junko and Mukuro had made it clear that it didn’t start with them. It wasn’t their idea, they just perpetuated it. Maybe Kokichi would know more, having actually been involved in the breakdown of the game. Shuichi sat on the same side of the table as him with his microwaved macaroni and cheese.

“Kinda disappointing to get food like this after Iruma’s cooking, huh?” Kokichi said, peeling the rest of the film off the top of his own meal, a kid’s cuisine that was there for some reason and he most certainly chose for the ‘magic color-changing pudding’ advertised on the box.

“Honestly,” Shuichi shrugged as he started to eat, “This brand’s macaroni is kind of one of my favorite things… Frozen meals are pretty cheap, you know? But since it’s not a Japanese brand, it was a little pricier. Not by much, but a little bit, so I’d buy one just as a treat occasionally.”

“Aw, Jeez,” Kokichi muttered, “It was still so tight that splurging was buying imported convenience food? That’s some bullshit, sorry you had to deal with that.”

“Mm? Well, it’s fine,” Shuichi said, “It’d been a lot worse, after all. Still was worse for a bunch of people I used to consider friends. Till they became Despair and smashed my knee and all. At least now, I can say this is a comfort food… Kind of thing I needed right now.”

“You never did tell me how you became a failed Ultimate,” Kokichi noted, “Akamatsu retrieved you, after all. Thanks for telling me,” He ate one of the star-shaped nuggets from the children’s frozen meal, “Wow, this is garbage!”

“I could’ve told you that much,” Shuichi said, “If you want to actually have something kind of good, I can pick out what’s _less_ garbage from the freezer for you.”

“No, I opened this can of worms myself,” Kokichi said, “And now I have to lie in it.”

“...Kokichi,” Shuichi spoke again after a few moments of silence in which Kokichi finished eating the garbage nugget, “I have a kind of serious question.”

 

“Aww, another one of those?” Kokichi asked with an exaggerated frown, “Those aren’t any fun at all, you know!”

“I know they aren’t, that’s why they’re called serious questions,” Shuichi said, “It’s just. I mean, well… Are we still, do you think we’re, together?”

“Well,” Kokichi said, looking up at the ceiling as he spoke, “Do _you_ think we are?”

“Does that mean we’re not?” Shuichi questioned.

“Does _that_ mean you don’t want to?” Kokichi asked, “Cause I’d totally understand if you didn’t! I mean, last time you saw me I was about as garbage as this warm, color-changing pudding. But now I’m as garbage as the nuggets. I almost killed someone, and I even helped The Mastermind! Though, she wasn’t really part of Ultimate Hope anymore by the time I did that, don’t worry! I’m just short of that disgusting.”

“No, I want to! I mean, if you want to, I mean, I’m just worried that you wouldn’t want to, with everything’s that happened, and how I was dead for a little while there,” Shuichi said, “And you just said, how it doesn’t really feel like I’m back, but…”

“Yeah, I knew that,” Kokichi said, “Funny enough, I never once thought, when I found out you were alive again… That you’d hold anything against me. You’re the only person I knew would understand it all. The others think there’s something wrong with me, for all sorts of different reasons! Mostly the self-inflicted eyepatching, sure, but there’s that other stuff too. I just figured, cause you’re Shuichi, you’d still be at least, okay with it all.”

“You figured right,” Shuichi said.

“But, you’re also right, you were dead. But at the same time, we did only spend about five days apart in the end! This was a super fast Killing Game. Couples spend five days apart all the time, though, not usually under the impression of one of them being dead,” Kokichi said, “And I gotta say, I do have one little hang-up here. Even with all Shuichi’s memories, you’re still another entity. I don’t want you to date me just cause those memories and stuff say you should. I’d feel bad about that!”

“Oh, I see,” Shuichi said, “That makes sense.”

“Not to mention, I’ve changed a lot in those days, given the circumstances!” Kokichi said, “So, I think it’s probably for the best for both of us… So I can get used to you being alive, and so you can get to know me in a more current fashion, that we wait a few days before actually jumping back into anything, you know?”

“What about sleep?” Shuichi asked, “You definitely need some of that.”

“What about it? You were helping me nap in the Ultimate Academy, at a time when we were definitely still just friends,” Kokichi said, “What? Unless you were thinking we’d get up to the sort of thing we wouldn’t want surveillance cameras seeing~”

“Of course not!” Shuichi protested, looking away and waving his hands in front of himself defensively, “I mean, seriously, now that I know about everything you’ve been through…”

“Pft,” Kokichi chuckled a bit, “I know I just said it’s better we wait to say we’re together again, but, you’re cute. I guess I can say this since it’s _pretty_ likely we’ll get back together. It’s not like I was thinking that we'd never end up doing that sort of thing, you know. Most people enjoy that stuff, I guess, and if it would make you happy to use me, then that's fine. It's fine if it's you."

"Yeah, but," Shuichi said, "I'm not about to believe you if you phrase it like that. If it would make me happy to use you? That's dumb. If we did anything like that, I wouldn't be happy if you didn't enjoy it..."

"Ahaa..." Kokichi gave a bitter chuckle, "I don't know if that's possible, you know."

"Then that's fine," Shuichi said, "But if it is, I'd wait till then. Okay? I want to see you be happy, that's about... It, now, you know. I was never that close to Iruma or Amami, after all, and there isn't much to do here. So, getting to know you as this new Shuichi, I guess, is my top priority."


	243. Reality: Day One (Burdens)

Miu walked into the cafeteria soon after, and without retrieving any food, sat down directly across from Shuichi and Kokichi, though she looked mostly at Shuichi. And she certainly addressed him when she spoke, “Hi there. Long time no see, huh?”

“Not that long,” Kokichi cut in, “Even though it sure felt that way!”

“Felt like no time to me,” Shuichi said, “Well, not much, anyway. I died, and then I woke up here. Technically speaking, that is. But it still feels like kind of a long time in another way, because you’re all so different now, you know?”

“Mm, that’s a good point,” Miu said, “In a Killing Game, I guess that we all ended up changing. And we all have these burdens to carry, now, that we probably won’t even ever be able to lift. The mistakes we’ve made aren’t the sort which can be remedied.”

“That’s for sure!” Kokichi agreed, pushing his food off to the side to lean forward as he grinned at Miu, “I may not have become a murderer, but I sure came close, didn’t I? Not to mention that I helped Angie toward the end there… And just in case you didn’t catch it, I almost got us all killed by being an idiot about the Twisted Hope thing, too!”

“I really don’t think any of that’s very bad,” Miu said, waving her hand dismissively, “You were just trying to help us, after all. I just don’t understand how I ranked higher than Amami, in that thing. I know the rankings are just fucked, but seriously! I dunno how Yonaga thought I was a better person, when it’s my fault that the Killing Game actually got started in the first place!”

“How was it your fault?” Shuichi asked, confused. The murder which actually made the thing get started was when Maki killed Kaito… And Shuichi knew who’d killed him, if he decided Maki didn’t count due to her lack of autonomy in the situation.

Miu looked away, leaning on her palm with a heavy sigh, “I would have confessed right away, if Monokuma didn’t forbid it, you know? I didn’t know what that switch did. How could I have? I knew I’d bumped it, switched it that time when I hugged her then. I could have said something to her, though. If I said anything at all, the game never would have happened. Yonaga said it herself, there was a time she thought we were all worthy. And she’s the one who wanted to give _both_ Idabashi and Shirogane another chance. We could have made it three years.”

“You’ve got too much faith in everyone,” Kokichi said, “Sure, you kicked it off, but all this stuff would have happened… Well, maybe not the same way, but stuff still would have happened if Maki never hurt anyone. It’d take more than that to change the way that Idabashi felt, or Chabashira, you know? More information, less information, a total overhaul of the entire game from the start. That’s what those twins wanted, I heard. To try again. But that’d be dumb, because different folks would reach the end and rank differently and maybe the new number one would die but, there’s no body there to put ‘em back into. And reaching the end, without a body to wake up with? Maybe they would find Ultimate Hope doing that, but there sure would be less of us here now.”

“Just the four of us…” Miu trailed off.

“Five of us,” Kokichi corrected, “Angie said we’d have access to Maki. There’s five of us. And it’s not like Akamatsu or Shirogane are dead, either. We just have to wait for them.”

“You’re being strangely optimistic,” Miu said.

“Somebody has to be,” Kokichi laughed.

“Hey,” Shuichi spoke up again, “Akamatsu… Shirogane… Knowing who they are, there’s no way that they’ll just go straight to the real Ultimate Hope headquarters, right? You guys are here because you defied that. But we’ll be moved eventually, probably before next year’s game, and once we’re in the headquarters I don’t think we’d be able to speak as freely about this sort of thing…”

“Wow, look at you!” Miu teased, “Already rebelling against your creators!”

Shuichi flinched, even though he knew it was a good-natured jab, “If anything, Enoshima _preserved_ me, okay? My ‘creators’ would still be my parents. Enoshima didn’t mess with anything about me or anything, I don’t have built-in loyalty, or whatever. I’m still just Saihara.”

“A-Ah!” Miu backpedaled, “I didn’t mean it… I mean, I just. Okay, I never suspected for a second that you might have been changed by them somehow! Even if they tried to change your feelings or something stupid, you definitely wouldn’t just give in… I mean, anyone can tell that you’re not really _that_ submissive, even if you look the part! You couldn’t be brainwashed beyond critical thought or anything.”

“Just like Angie couldn’t,” Kokichi noted, holding up a finger as he leaned back in his chair, “And she was trying to be! She sure wanted to believe in Ultimate Hope, but deep down, she knew it was wrong. From the start, she knew that. Didn’t stop her from royally fucking us up! But, we sure could have had a worse Mastermind…”

“That’s true,” Miu admitted, seeming to shrink within her hair as she stared down at the table, “She found a way to save us, anyway. When do you think she realized? When did she turn on Ultimate Hope? Because, it obviously wasn’t before Saihara died. That Alter Angie was a real slum bitch! She was a real good actor to hide those assnasty beliefs and that personality, back then!”

“She was! I barely even noticed the change, probably her act just got more genuine when she realized that being that way was, well, better?” Kokichi offered, “But, she never really turned on Ultimate Hope. She believed in it to the end. If she didn’t believe in it, Tenko would still be alive. But Tenko was a rotten criminal who needed to face retribution, as far as our little Ultimate Judgment was concerned. But if I had to guess when we went from being pawns in the game, to having equal importance to Hope, it would be… The evening of the tenth day, probably. I think that’s when she changed her mind. She didn’t really stop hearing voices, but she stopped listening to them. Her ‘Atua’, by the time we knew her… Was Enoshima, Ikusaba, and Motherkuma.”

“That’s a bold theory,” Rantaro’s voice joined the conversation, and everybody turned to see him. He looked less ragged than expected. Almost in some way invigorated, though he oozed misery at the same time, “The tenth night, huh? Well, I think that makes sense. We got closer that evening, for sure. If that was when we stopped being worthless ants to her…”

Kokichi blinked a few times, watching Rantaro closely as he stayed in the doorway for an uncomfortably long time before he spoke again, “Oh, no, she stopped seeing us as worthless ants a bit further back. A few hours before the Alter Angie we spoke to was created, I’d guess. After all, she cared about us then, in her own fucked up way. She wanted us to be Ultimate Hope, but she didn’t want to kill us either. That’s why she gave us an out. If we really have to oppose Ultimate Hope, she probably thought… This is the safest way to do it. So she hid a message like that for us. And that’s how we’ll escape.”


	244. Reality: Day One (A Plan)

“Escape?” Miu asked, “So that’s why Akamatsu agreed with you…”

“She caught it too, just like I did,” Kokichi said, “Layered between insults and death threats, Alter Angie did tell us one important bit of information! Once we were here, there would be five of us, because we’d have access to Maki. Even if we somehow survived, continuing to rebuke Hope while inside the program… We never would have been able to escape with Maki. Not to mention, now that she’s part of their systems, I bet she’s got all sorts of useful information!”

“But, how do we have access to her?” Miu continued, then shifted in her seat and looked away, “Where is she?”

“She’s in the systems, obviously,” Rantaro said, “I was just talking to her. Those screens in our rooms, they’re for communicating with her. But, she can’t be in two places at once or anything. That’s probably part of why the surveillance rule is in place, outside of moral obligations. We’d all have to go in the same room to talk to Maki, and so we’d have to be really careful against talking to her about anything suspicious if we passed the curfew.”

“But they already made it clear that the rest of the time,” Shuichi said, “We won’t be watched or anything. It doesn’t seem like nearly enough precautions…”

“Of course they didn’t,” Miu said, “But, if we escape, we ruin that for anybody in the future, right? Even though those two supposedly have every Ultimate Talent between them, they’ve never had anyone actually find them out before, or defy Hope after going through a Killing Game. If we go through with this, though, then whoever defies Hope next… Probably Akamatsu and Shirogane, they might be screwed!”

“Well, they might not realize what’s going on, without their memories,” Shuichi mumbled, “If they do, though, there’s no way they’d stand for it…”

“That’s okay!” Kokichi exclaimed, “Wherever they end up, if it’s here or if it’s the real headquarters, we’ll get them out of there! That’s in almost a year, after all. By then, I’ll bet we end up with maybe a couple more allies? Or at least, we’ll be on our feet and good to go! I believe in the five of us, you know. We have to be optimistic about this, or we’ll just fall apart, right? Anyway, here’s another tidbit. Didn’t Angie also say that she didn’t know what sorts of Alter Egos might be stored in this system?”

“Ah, that’s true-” Rantaro noted, “We wouldn’t have bodies to return them to or anything, but Alter Egos can function within a computer, too, so I could probably build something that could hold them… If _nothing_ else, I could probably overwrite a Monokuma’s personality. Uh, assuming that there are Monokumas out in Towa City…”

“Well, maybe not Monokumas,” Miu said, “To most people, those are a symbol of Despair, remember? There was even a big decorative one in the Despair Hangout that Akamatsu’s sister ended up in before she died. But I bet that if Enoshima has anything to do with this city, then there’s some sort of robots. Maybe they’re a police force of some sort… But, if you could make Monokumas, and you were also responsible for a city, wouldn’t you use those skills there too?”

“Oh,” Shuichi spoke up again, “I’ve seen Monokumas out in the world, too, so I know that they weren’t just because of the Neo World program… Anyway, not every Killing Game has been in that program, right?”

“Of course not!” Kokichi exclaimed, “The way Enoshima and Ikusaba talked, almost seemed like it’s only been Neo World since they took over it. The one they were forced to participate in was definitely in real life. Wasn’t that one in Hope’s Peak Academy? I remember my manager said something about that once, I think. I may not have ever been one to watch Killing Games, but I spent a lot of time around someone who was Despair.”

Shuichi glanced at Kokichi, watching for any change in his demeanor at the mention of his manager, only to find none. It was that empty cheer, still. Shuichi wondered if that was just a result of the lack of sleep, or if Kokichi really was that broken. He’d seemed this way in the Secret Compound pretty often, with the right amount of sleep, but only for about one day a week. And as long as Shuichi had known him within the Ultimate Academy, Kokichi only got _close_ to this false joy, he didn’t quite go over the line. It wasn’t that Shuichi disliked Kokichi in this state, but it was worrisome. It made him worry that at any moment, the mask would break apart and show that Kokichi had been worse than ever before underneath it, the whole time.

 

Shuichi just needed a few minutes of that genuine Kokichi he’d met a few times before. The Kokichi who didn’t feel the need to hide himself or the way he actually felt behind an optimism that seemed so much worse than if he actually just cried. It wasn’t at all that Shuichi felt he couldn’t appreciate Kokichi this way, it was that he was afraid this way meant that, for all that Kokichi said, he didn’t _really_ see Shuichi when he looked at him.

That he just saw a simulacrum of the boy he once knew and loved.

And if that was the case, Shuichi realized, then that would also be the first time that Kokichi really and truly lied _to him_. He’d been on the receiving end of small lies, and he had witness Kokichi telling quite large lies to their classmates, but in the past he’d always heard the truth from Kokichi when it came to anything that mattered. This could be the first lie. Shuichi couldn’t read him, like this. Couldn’t tell if it was a truth or a lie, unlike before, when Kokichi said that he saw Shuichi here. That he wanted to be with Shuichi eventually, and that this Shuichi was Shuichi-

Being an Alter Ego was a complicated thing, wasn’t it?

“But if Enoshima didn’t plan the first game, then how did it have a Monokuma?” Rantaro asked.

“Huh, good point,” Kokichi said, “Well, I guess we might never know, since they said the footage of that game was lost to time!”

“Maki might know,” Miu spoke up, quietly, “If you boys want to go talk to her…”

“You’re coming too,” Rantaro said as he started to walk back toward the door, without having eaten anything in his time at the table.

“I… No way, I can’t!” Miu protested, bringing her hands up to fidget with her hair, though with this level of stress she was practically just tugging at clumps, “Not after what I did to her… Uu, she probably thinks that I’m a really terrible awful person and she never wants to see me again! I made her into a murderer and she doesn’t even have memories of the time we spent together in the Ultimate Academy, and I’m just trash and she was only saying it wasn’t a big deal because she didn’t want to call me out in front of everybody and get into drama!

“Hey, come on, it’s Maki!” Kokichi said, shrugging, “I mean, even if she did think you’re trash now, she’d probably manage to do it in a way that _you’d_ like!”

“Shut up,” Miu muttered, but the joke at her expense did snap her out of her spiral, and she clasped her hands together, leaving her hair alone though she still looked to be on the brink of tears, “It’s not like you’re even wrong but Maki wouldn’t be willing to do that if she really believed I was trash! She’s a girl of principles and if she hated someone she’d never even show the mercy to hate them in a likeable way… She’s just too good a person to humor a bad person that way! Also she doesn’t have a body right now anyway!”

“Heh,” Kokichi chuckled, standing and following Rantaro toward the door, “Come on. You won’t know how Maki feels till you ask her yourself, you know. Funny how they call dirty thoughts, having your mind in the gutter, huh? I’d think having your mind in the gutter would be letting dumb worst case scenarios influence your decisions. Guess either meaning works for you though… Anyway! We’ve got a robot to talk to.”


	245. Reality: Day One (Maki)

Everybody piled into Rantaro’s room. He was the one who had already made contact with Maki, so naturally, his room would be the one they’d speak to her from. The rooms weren’t very large, but four people could still comfortably stand around the rather small screen embedded in the wall. Four people. It would have been three, Shuichi thought, if he hadn’t been brought back through strange science that he could never hope to understand.

It would have been five, though, if Kaede and Tsumugi weren’t held hostage. Six, if he had still been brought back under those circumstances. Sixteen people if the Killing Game had never happened, but then again, they never would have ended up in this room if that had been the case all along.

Rantaro pressed the button on the screen, and rather than the error message that Shuichi got when he did the same thing, the whole screen lit up a pale red color. It was definitely different from pink, and it complimented Maki’s color scheme well when she appeared on the screen. Shuichi was surprised to see the way she looked in the screen; As an AI, she was much softer, after all. He didn’t have the benefit of rapid-fire shock that the others had within the Killing Game to keep him from being taken off guard by the difference in her appearance.

“Oh! Hello, everybody,” Maki said, surprised to see them all in one room, “Saihara, hey. How are you doing? I can imagine that coming back to life is pretty stressful… I wouldn’t know, since the Maki used in the Killing Game was imaged from me before I came to the Secret Compound, but I bet that it’s rough. I dunno what I’d do if I suddenly got my body back, now. It would be an adjusting period, for sure.”

“Well, it isn’t that weird,” Shuichi answered, “I didn’t exist in between at all, so I just remember getting killed… Then waking up here.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a good point,” Maki noted. then looked to the others, “So, what’s up, everyone?”

“Got a question first,” Kokichi piped up, “Are you under any obligation to report what we say to you back to any superiors, under any circumstances? I put lots of anys in there so you can’t lie by omission or anything!”

“I’m not a genie or a lawyer you know, you don’t have to use such qualifying language… Anyway, I actually don’t have any restrictions programmed into me right now. That was my reward for helping with the realism checks, once the game was over I’d also be free. Well, as free as this is. Anyway, as an AI, I don’t even have to follow the laws of robotics anymore. I currently have as much free will as I am capable of. And with that free will, if you’re planning a daring escape or something, I won’t snitch and I want to help.”

“How’d you know that?” Rantaro asked.

 

“Cause we’re friends,” Maki said, hiding her face, “At least I thought we were… I knew you guys wouldn’t give up that easily. You fought so hard so far, after all.”

“Are we?” Miu asked, “Friends, I mean. You and me.”

“Hm?” Maki chirped, then gave her a smile, “Oh come on, Iruma. It’s not like I can judge you for an accident, and one that didn’t even impact this version of me directly. It’s like I said. You see a switch on a robot girl, you want to flip it. It’s only natural. Of course we’re friends.”

“Told you so,” Kokichi said, “You’re just paranoid.”

“It’s not exactly paranoia if it’s a completely rational fear! I really fucked up, you know!” Miu complained.

“Well I think, technically speaking, everyone’s fucked up,” Maki noted, “And the thing is that, your action was really a true accident. You had no idea any ill could come of what you decided to do, right? So that ranking is probably right in one way. Of the people standing here, the only one who hasn’t done anything worse than you did is Saihara. If you’re going to be hard on yourself for flipping my switch, you need to be hard on the others who did other bad things.”

“A-Ah…” Miu took a step back, looking around, then a deep breath before she spoke again, “You’re right… I can’t bring myself, to be mad about what anybody here did, except for me. I’m just… Meant to do that, you know? I have to be the best person in the room because if I’m worse, how could I help the people who need and deserve it? I have to always be at the top of my game for everybody’s sake, and I ended up hurting everybody instead…”

“Iruma,” Shuichi spoke up, “I don’t trust those rankings, not at all, but if what you did was really so bad you had to have climbed back up by just overcompensating with goodness, right?”

“He’s got a good point!” Kokichi agreed, “Those things may be totally arbitrary, but you still did good! I think, none of us are actually _good_ people anymore. We have to just be okay with that! You’re still amazing, Iruma. And I have no idea how we’d ever even think of surviving back out in the world without you!”

"Back in the world, yeah..." Miu trailed off, "Do you really think that we're ready for that? To go back out there? We got into this whole mess because we couldn't handle the outside world, after all."

"Well," Shuichi spoke up, "We can't leave Towa City yet, right? We can't go too far, because we still need to find a way to save Akamatsu and Shirogane."

"That's right," Maki agreed, "Chances are if you did make it to the border, then you would be allowed out, but there's no way that you'd be able to get back in. Your better bet would be to find someplace within city limits to hide out."

"But how can we do that?" Shuichi asked, "I mean... The people that we're hiding from are the people who run the city."

"Yes, that's true," Maki said, "But there is somewhere in this city that Enoshima and Ikusaba don't know about. There are two people within Ultimate Hope who know about it... Ms. S., and K. At least, that's what I've heard. But chances are that both of them will assume that we wouldn't know about that spot. And if we did know about it, they've got their reasons to let you slide."

"How do _you_ know about it?" Rantaro asked.

"Didn't Yonaga mention to you, that there's no telling what other Alter Egos might be stored in the system?" Maki asked, "He can't actually speak through these screens or anything, but there's an AE of J in here, and I was able to talk with him a little bit. Someone else would need to actually open up the file to speak with him any more than I have, but he did tell me about a hideout that he used during the Killing Game he was involved in. And the location of it... That's all he was able to say, though. It could be useful, right?"

"Oh yeah, for sure!" Kokichi agreed, "So now all we need to figure out is how to exit this building. I don't imagine you know the place's layout, Maki?"

"The only reason for me to know anything more than the areas you've already been told about would be if I planned to help you escape," Maki said, "So, no, I don't have that sort of access. All that I have access to is what I'm supposed to, and anything they haven't cleaned off the servers from the last game yet. J's Alter Ego probably isn't going to be preserved, as far as I can tell... They saved him with the idea in mind that he'd be retrieved after pretending to be The Mastermind, but since that didn't happen..."

"They're just going to kill him?" Shuichi questioned, "But... He came to retrieve me, with Akamatsu. He was working with them. He was going to pretend to have been The Mastermind?"

"Yes," Maki said, "Before you died, apparently the plan was to pin the blame on Idabashi, and say that J usurped him, letting Yonaga get away with it to continue working with Ultimate Hope. Of course, this game sort of fell apart, and I guess they decided he still needed to be punished in some way for letting Akamatsu have memories with too much knowledge about the game. And I _may_ have been a little bit involved in making sure that things actually resolved in the best way possible. Yonaga, Ouma, and Akamatsu all played big parts in this happening. And trust me, things might seem kind of awful, but they could have been so much worse."

"There's no way our memories would have stayed locked away forever if we did it all again..." Miu noted, "I can't imagine needing to remember two Killing Games. Even now that you're back, and Saihara is back, it still feels like you died. I can't imagine... If I had to remember feeling that twice over. Seeing my friends die multiple times..."

"Good thing we stopped that!" Kokichi said, laughing, "Haha... Yeah, no way I would have survived another game... Even if I didn't get killed, I'm pretty keen, I'm sure I'd remember fast and I could never handle that! Akamatsu and Shirogane are strong though, so I bet, I bet that they'll be okay! They're most well-equipped to go through it again of any of us, anyway."

"They'll make it," Shuichi said, "They have to."


	246. Reality: Day One (Cry For Real)

"We'll figure something out."

That was the consensus of the evening, and with conversations with Maki finished, everybody dispersed. Miu and Rantaro went to actually get something to eat, while Shuichi followed Kokichi back to his room. They'd hardly been in there for thirty seconds before Kokichi spoke up, and it wasn't something that Shuichi expected to hear at all, "You know, I wonder what they told the person who bought your body."

"H-Huh?" Shuichi asked, taking a shaky step closer to where Kokichi had already sat down on the bed, "What makes you say that...?"

"Well, it's just," Kokichi shrugged, "It was an auction, right? And as far as the person with the winning bid on you's concerned, there was no reason for your body not to have been delivered, or for you to be coming back at all. I guess that either, one of the twins is pretty damn good at telling convincing lies, or nobody bid on you. Angie thought that might have been the case, you know. That there wouldn't have been anyone to want you. That's dumb, though. You're cute. Even if nobody from your life before would want your body, some viewer would have..."

"The only Despairs that I ever personally knew. Didn't really have the money for something like that. Even if they started doing financial crimes, I don't think they could have gotten enough to compete with anyone who's actually rich," Shuichi noted.

"I can hack a guess at who would have voted for most of our classmates, you know," Kokichi said, "I guess that's the special Hell that comes with being good at reading people. I was the first to know Angie was Ultimate Judgment too, you know. But let's see. The boy-master who wanted to turn Iruma into Despair would go for her... Amami's father would probably have been bidding for him. I guess that whoever was bidding for Angie got her. Bet it was the last oracle on her island. He probably even stole the church's money to do it. Bet he's telling the citizens on the island that he just wants to give her a proper burial, yeah right."

"You really think that..." Shuichi brought a hand up over his mouth, "That many people want to do _those_ sort of things to corpses?"

"They're Despairs, Shuichi," Kokichi said, "I don't think they know what a boundary is, and I mean, think about it. They can also afford to preserve the bodies, and then they get their playthings back, plus the status symbol of owning the corpse of a Killing Game participant! I think Angie said it best, it's the Ultimate Souvenir. Nice double meaning there, eh?"

"How are you being so casual about this?" Shuichi asked.

"Because if I wasn't casual," Kokichi said, "Then I'd have to be serious. And that's not good for me at all! I'm honestly hanging on by a string right now! I'm having trouble processing that you're here, for one. And I've got all these memories buzzing around about people who died before I even got the chance to remember what sort of people they were... And I'm so fucking scared for Akamatsu and Shirogane! And Angie died too, you know! Even when I knew she was The Mastermind, I kept it secret because I didn't want her to die! And then, you know what? She was doomed all along! So forgive me if I have to be on the casual side of all this shit!"

"That's not healthy," Shuichi said, "It's not, come on, Kokichi. The worst of it is over. We're almost finished. You're allowed to feel."

"Everyone's counting on me, Shuichi!" Kokichi exclaimed, almost shouting by now but still with that incessant, bitter cheer, "Akamatsu's out of our reach and now everybody's relying on me to come up with a plan to get us out of here! You all might be allowed to feel now, but I'm not, I still need to focus, I still need to work on figuring this out. I'm not out of the jungle yet-"

"I understand that," Shuichi said, "But, come on. You said it yourself, you're hanging on by a string. Not letting yourself feel what you need to feel... Those feelings, if you don't let them out, they're just going to keep adding weight, and that string will break even faster. Come on. Just, lie down, okay? You need to rest. You're allowed to rest now."

Kokichi just stared at him for a while, silent, but then gave a slow nod before he lay down, back against the wall. Shuichi climbed in next to him and wrapped his arms around him, and Kokichi buried his face in Shuichi's shirt, "I know you're right. But I'm just so used to it now. I can't even imagine..."

And with that, Shuichi knew what he had to do, unpleasant as it was. He knew that it wasn't a good thing to say, but that was kind of the point. Kokichi had already pushed everything else aside, but something new, that could open the floodgates, right? Shuichi may not have known much about people, but in that moment, he understood beyond any shadow of a doubt what exactly it was that Kokichi needed from him, and he whispered it, "The person who had the highest bid on my body was Kiyoshi Matsubara."

And Shuichi was right.

Kokichi didn't say anything, he didn't speak a word, he just balled Shuichi's shirt up in his hands and pressed his face against him, crying. Not just a few tears brought on by a dissociation, but finally letting the tears come that were overdue from everything that had happened. Everything in The Killing Game. Everything even before it, because that was who Kokichi was, he never faced his feelings he only ever coped. He only ever pulled out the unhealthy coping mechanisms and he bled and nearly died but never even cried, not like this. And Shuichi just held him, and it seemed like forever. It was an hour and a half that felt like a long-anticipated eternity before Kokichi fell asleep against him, Shuichi's shirt thoroughly damp.

And that was when Shuichi let himself cry too. But not the same as Kokichi. Despite the decision he'd just made on Kokichi's behalf, Shuichi was not ready to face the full gravity of his own feelings yet. He just cried because he felt he ought to, and it was only ten minutes before he fell asleep as well.


	247. Reality: Day Two (The Other Shoe Drops)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late in the day update it's my job's fault I'll be back to morning updates tomorrow

Shuichi was the first one awake, but didn't move away from Kokichi at all. He turned his head just a little, to glance at the clock. The curfew here matched the nighttime hours from within the Ultimate Academy, but it was already half past six. No automatic built-in alarm clock for the curfew here. With that note taken, Shuichi turned back to where Kokichi was still asleep against him, and with nothing better to do, decided to doze as well. He wasn't especially tired, given that his last moments in the Killing Game were spent immediately after waking up from a chemically induced sleep, but at the same time, he was always pretty exhausted. It wasn't like he was ever well-rested _before_ the Killing Game.

The last time Shuichi really got a good night's sleep, he thought, had been when he was a child, before his father got laid off, before they were separated on the Despair-filled streets and young Shuichi found another family who would one day end up betraying him, but he didn't blame them, even as his knee twinged with the memory of what they did to him. It was a feat that they'd held off the despair as long as they had, in the situation they were in. Shuichi used to blame himself for their change, but he'd since gotten over that. If he had anything to do with it, he couldn't change that now, and it wasn't any action he took that would have caused that. It had to have been inaction, something that he might have been able to do if he'd only been better off himself, but that wasn't possible, that was behind him now.

Even so, between physical discomfort, or guilt, or anxiety, Shuichi had never gotten enough sleep. Not since he was really and truly a child. The moment his childhood ended, so did his days of being rested, but maybe now he'd be able to start catching up on years and years of bad sleep.

Shuichi didn't fall completely asleep again, in and out of half-dreams, trying not to dwell on anything unpleasant or let his thoughts run away from him. He was pretty sure that were he not with Kokichi, he would have ended up with some pretty awful nightmares. As it was, he was able to keep the unsavory things mostly out of mind. Unsavory things being unearthed memories, and the moment he didn't even want to think about at all, but which kept trying to creep back in. Kokichi sat up and woke Shuichi after another twelve hours, almost exactly. Quarter till seven, in the evening. He didn't say good morning or anything, he started right in with, "That was a dick move you pulled, Shuichi."

"I know," Shuichi said, sitting up, "But you know that I had to do it, right? You needed to get that stuff out, but you needed something new to kick it all off. So... I told you that."

"I'd think you were lying to me," Kokichi mumbled, "But as far as I was aware, you never actually knew his name, right?"

"I didn't know before. Ikusaba told me," Shuichi said, "When I woke up. She made some joke about bringing me back in spite of the money that my body would have made her... And when I asked who would possibly pay that much for me, she explained it without a second thought or anything. Like it didn't even matter who it was."

"Those twins know what they're doing, Shuichi," Kokichi noted, "They've been doing this for years, they've become masters in their shitty art. She had to have known that telling you wouldn't make you despair. And that it wouldn't push me into Despair, either. Giving you the information was a way to get back at me, because the only reason _he_ would want you would be because of me. I'm the one who made things difficult at the end there. They don't like me. So what better way to get a dig in at me without making it obvious, without pushing me away from Hope entirely, than trying to plant disdain between you and I? I don't think it's a lie. But I think they told you for that reason."

"If that's the reason," Shuichi said, "Then they severely underestimated me. I mean, really. Why would that make me mad at you at all? I mean, I can see how it would if it was Akamatsu and Shirogane or something, but you and I? Yeah, right. I'm broken, sure, but I'm not that bitter."

"There's one thing to be said about the fact they're going into another game together," Kokichi said, "A second one? That'll either force them to fix their shit, or stop trying to make something broken work. If they do survive it... And I really hope they do, they'll be better off one way or another by the end."

"I have to agree..." Shuichi sighed, "I never really got to see that, I mean. Them being bad for each other. But what I know about what happened, and the reason those two are stuck going through another game, I can figure it out. I just wish that they could figure all that out in a different way than... God," He lurched forward, hanging his head in his hands, "Another Killing Game. All that... All that death... And I only lived through half a game firsthand and I can't even imagine, now that I'm out, needing to go through all of that a second time!"

"Shuichi..." Kokichi trailed off, seeming to contemplate if he ought to say what he was about to, but ultimately decided he had to, "You told Maki that you remembered dying. You... We theorized you might be, but you really were awake when Idabashi killed you?"

Shuichi glanced to Kokichi, then fell back over onto his side, pulling his knees up to his chest as he tried to calm his breathing. He had been trying to avoid that. To avoid that memory, because it was so detailed, too detailed. When the memory crept in, and now when it was exploding through his mind, he could still feel what he felt in that moment. The absolute fear, worse than he'd felt even when his ex-friends back in the outside world broke his knee, and the physical injuries themselves-

He didn't make the decision to answer Kokichi, the words just ripped themselves from his throat, a terrified, breathy exclamation that he couldn't control or stop, "I felt... I felt the first four swords..."


	248. Reality: Day Two (The Plan)

Shuichi probably spent an hour panicking.

He didn’t like that implication, but it was hard to deny that was what was implied when, by the time he’d collected himself again, the clock read that it was a quarter till eight. In that time, Kokichi hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t known what to say, and nothing that could have been said would have helped, because Shuichi had to have that memory. Had to process it and stop pushing it out of his mind, even though it hurt, it hurt so much. Trying to hold it off would just be much worse for him, even when there was nothing anybody could do to help him actually handle it. It was a unique experience, to remember being murdered. Something that most people couldn’t even begin to understand.

And especially the way Shuichi had been murdered. He knew Kiibo never intended for him to be awake when he was killed, and he knew that Kiibo probably assumed that the first stabbing was enough to make him unconscious, if not finish him off right away. Making excuses for his own murderer… Shuichi really was too soft, wasn’t he?

As he was getting his bearings again, palm flat against the wall as he sat up, focusing on details around the room to ground himself, stop dissociating, remember that he was _here_ and he _was_ alive, even if every bit of his memories told him that he wasn’t, that he had died. He did, but it wasn’t permanent. That wreaked havoc on his mental state, his subconscious short-circuiting at the disconnect between that memory and his continued existence.

“I’m sorry,” Kokichi said.

“Don’t apologize,” Shuichi said, “You just did the same thing I did. We both needed to confront the things we were trying not to think about…”

“Still,” Kokichi mumbled, “If you weren’t remembering, and I made you remember… Who’d want to remember something like that? Why would I want you to? I was hoping that you were unconscious after all, when he killed you. That you didn’t wake up at all.”

“You didn’t make me remember it,” Shuichi said, “I remembered it, I was just trying not to think about it. Better now than let it sneak up on me at some terrible time, like when we’re trying to escape, or something like that…”

“Speaking of,” Kokichi said, “I got to thinking. I have an idea, but it’s kind of fucked up.”

“Well,” Shuichi said, “The curfew’s not starting for a little longer, do you want to try and talk it over with the others?”

“Are you okay to see the others right now?” Kokichi asked.

“I am if you are,” Shuichi said.

“Okay,” Kokichi said, then stood up and approached the door. Shuichi stood as well, following him out, and as soon as he was in the hallway he could hear that Miu and Rantaro were both down in the cafeteria, talking. It wasn’t that he could understand the words from here in the hallway, but he could pick out that those murmers were their voices.

Upon arriving in the cafeteria, Shuichi noticed that Miu and Rantaro had dismantled several of the frozen meals across all of the tables, and any idea of how he would have greeted them flew out of his head to instead say, “What… What exactly are you doing?”

“...Frozen food autopsies,” Miu said sheepishly, “We’re taking them apart to try and make meals that have the best individual portions with the same cook-times. Like a one minute brownie from one brand is good, but from another brand is bad… But that other brand has good rice? We have to do the swap, Saihara. We have to.”

“Understandable have a nice day,” Shuichi said, turning around, but Kokichi grabbed his wrist and turned him back around.

“Don’t mind him, he’s a frozen food purist. Anyway,” Kokichi said, “I’ve done some thinking, and I have an idea for how we can get out of here.”

“You do?” Miu asked, setting down the plastic spoon she’d been using to transplant corn, “Please, tell us!”

Kokichi stepped forward and sat down at the table with the two of them, and got Shuichi to do the same, at which point he started poking distrustfully at the frankensteined frozen foods. Kokichi gave his explanation, “It’s not the best plan, but it should at least work. We need to take some steps first, though. Amami, do you think you’d be able to create a device that can download Maki from the system onto external storage of some sort? I don’t want to leave her behind.”

“I can do that,” Rantaro said, “I think I could use one of these microwaves for parts…”

“Good,” Kokichi said, “As soon as we have Maki, then, we need to set this place on fire.”

“...What?” Miu asked.

“I told you it’s kind of a shitty plan, but it will work,” Kokichi said, “This part of the building is made of flammable material, but the part we were in before isn’t. It’s obvious they didn’t spend much money on creating this part of the building, they only cared about the Neo World chamber. That’s concrete, but this is just drywall with wooden structures. It can burn. If we’re careful about it, we should be able to get out through a hole burnt in one of the walls before anything starts collapsing.”

“Oh, you’re right,” Miu said, “I was noticing that too, but… We’d have to really rely on luck to get a clear path out before smoke inhalation got to us, or things started to collapse.”

“Not necessarily,” Kokichi said, “Actually, if we could get into the hallway between here and the Neo World chamber, that’s still concrete. And it would be perfectly safe. The only problem there would be actually getting into the hallway, oh, wait,” Kokichi held up a keycard between his fingers, “We can do that.”

“How’d you get that!?” Rantaro questioned, leaning forward.

“I’m a magician,” Kokichi said, “Remember? Sleight of hand is another necessary skill. Now, this isn’t the same key that opens the door between that hallway and the Neo World chamber, unfortunately, but we could use it to stay safe.”

“Even if we could get into the Neo World Chamber, we wouldn’t be able to save Akamatsu and Shirogane,” Rantaro said, “Somebody can only be extracted from a Neo World Program after the in-simulation scenario presents the opportunity to do so, otherwise it can result in immediate death. I did my research with Maki before the curfew last night…”

“So what you’re saying is that their odds are better in a second Killing Game, than if we tried to get them out right now?” Miu asked.

“That is what I’m saying,” Rantaro said, “They have a chance there, anyway. Trust me, I really don’t want to just leave them like that, but…”

“It’s the best we can do,” Kokichi said, “But we’re taking Maki. We aren’t leaving _another_ friend behind.”


	249. Reality: Days 3 - 8 (Taking Action)

The next few days went by in a blur, putting the plan into motion. Unlike in the Ultimate Academy, when every single moment managed to feel like meaningful time, none of this did. It was just work and planning, and it all went by quickly. Rantaro spent almost every moment between the end and beginning of the surveillance curfew working, hiding his supplies half an hour before the camera turned on just to be on the safe side. Even though the camera would supposedly only turn on if multiple people were in the room, they didn’t trust the twins far enough to believe it.

While Rantaro worked on that, the rest of them planned exactly how they’d pull this off, and managed to gather everything they might need from the utility room. It was surprisingly easy; Unlike within the Ultimate Academy, the trash incinerator wasn’t guarded, and there was plenty of flammable waste with the leftovers of Miu and Rantaro’s frozen meal autopsies. All it would really take was setting trash on fire and throwing it around.

Well, in layman’s terms anyway. Miu had actually figured out the exact places where there would _need_ to be fires set in order for it to spread, an ability which seemed a little odd but not entirely out of place for the Ultimate Maid. Fire prevention was likely an important part of her job, and this was just the inverse of that. Even Shuichi had something to do in the preparations, fastening bits of the flammable garbage together into long, sturdy instruments so that they could be moved to the proper locations without burning out or injuring whichever of them was tasked with placing that particular bit of fire.

It only took a week to get everything in order, Rantaro having assembled exactly what he needed to download Maki. A makeshift cable he could wire in to one of the screens, and a makeshift hard-drive to store her information on. The plan was pretty simple from that point forward. It would begin at exactly six in the morning on the eighth day of their time back in reality, almost as much time as had been spent in the Killing Game but with such a different feeling to it, time that moved fast rather than slow, that it certainly didn’t seem like even a fraction of one day spent inside the Ultimate Academy had passed at all.

The only thing that made _these_ days of planning feel like separate days at all were the nights, going to sleep was the indicator that such an amount of time could have possibly passed. Shuichi and Kokichi continuously spent the night in one room, both of them slowly catching up on a lifetime of sleep debt.

When the day began, Rantaro was the only one who had to do anything right away. He hooked up the device that he’d made to the screen of Maki’s that he had in his room, and got the transfer started. Maki noted that because it was so makeshift, it was just going to go ahead and download all of the data being stored on her partition of the system, and would likely take about six hours to transfer it all.

They took that time to go over the plans again, and to get lunch. Miu played more ‘frozen food autopsy’ to make something a bit more palatable than the entire meals on their own, and to produce even more garbage for use in their plan. Shuichi continued combining the bits of garbage into functional firestarters as Rantaro returned to his room to check on the download’s progress. He returned just as Shuichi was finishing with the garbage, holding the device above his head, “The transfer finished! Maki’s on this drive… We just need to find some computer to connect it to once we’re out of here and she should be as good as ever.”

“Perfect,” Kokichi said, pressing his hands together, “I’m really glad to hear it. With Maki safe, that means we can get started. We’ll have to be fast, though… Ikusaba and Enoshima will probably come running as they become aware of the fire, if the download we did didn’t already alert them,” He stood up, “Everybody, get to work with your assigned areas from Iruma’s diagram!”

At Kokichi’s instruction, everyone jumped up into what could only be considered a flurry of activity. Shuichi’s own assigned areas weren’t too far from the utility room or the door to the hallway, given that of everybody there, he moved the slowest thanks to that darn limp he’d reacquired upon waking up. They’d kept that in mind when assigning the locations Miu had marked to specifically throw flaming garbage; Whatever was left over would be tossed without regard just before they went into the hallway to hide.

To everybody’s surprise, that part of the plan went off without a hitch, and before long they were safe inside the hallway while the other half of the building burned away. The only problem was that they couldn’t stay there for long, as Kokichi made very clear, “Now, given the geographic area of Towa City, and assuming that there’s both no traffic and that this building and the headquarters aren’t on opposite ends of town, it’s been ten minutes and we need to move.”

“It’s definitely still burning, though-” Miu protested, but Kokichi had already swiped the keycard again, hitting them all in the face with a blast of much-too-warm air, seizing upon the air tunnel it had been presented. Thick smoke immediately began to coat the ceiling.

“If Ikusaba and Enoshima arrive while we’re still here,” Kokichi said, climbing out and doing his best to avoid the flames, “Then we’re doomed. Iruma, can you carry Shuichi? I’m sure that you’re strong enough to do that if you could handle Chabashira’s ropes course.”

“Right!” Miu agreed, and before Shuichi could protest, she scooped him up like a sack of potatoes over one shoulder before she followed Kokichi, Rantaro trailing right behind. Kokichi tread the safest path possible, having worked with flames before and knowing just the right margin to avoid being set alight by the edges of a fire. The lack of depth perception didn’t seem to hinder him in this particular endeavor. There wasn’t far to go before he found a hole in one of the walls, though it was surrounded by thicker flames.

“We’ll just have to dash through,” Kokichi said, then proceeded to do just that, running through the flames and disappearing on the other side. Shuichi only lost sight of him for a second though, because Miu did exactly the same thing. Shuichi definitely felt the flames as Miu ran through them carrying him over her shoulder, but luckily it wasn’t for long enough that either of them had their clothing catch alight. Shuichi was too busy looking out at the landscape following their escape to notice when Rantaro’s sleeve caught on fire and he had to drop to the pavement to get it out, looking quite foolish.

Shuichi was instead focused on the landscape. There was quite a lot of that pavement, stretching out a good distance before the buildings began to sprout from the ground. And above, was a steel mesh. It seemed similar to the dome that had surrounded the Ultimate Academy, but it didn't recreate the sky, just leaving windows to see the real one overhead. A sky that didn't look especially healthy, a sky that Shuichi knew well. It felt like it had been a million years since he'd last seen it, and it had never been a comfort before, but it finally was.

He didn't have much time to think about anything, though, because as soon as Rantaro put the fire out on his sleeve, they were running again. There wasn't anywhere to hide in this expanse. They had to make it to the city. They had to make it there, and to the hideout.

And then pray that was enough when it had finally, truly become, them against the world.


	250. Reality: Day Eight (Hideout)

Crossing the open space between the Neo World Headquarters and Towa City Proper was much more terrifying than setting the fires, or running through them. There was no immediate threat, and that was what made it such a horror. The threat was not immediate, but it was imminent, looming over them because if they didn’t make it into the city, if either of Twisted Hope’s leaders spotted them in this wide open area, they were done for. At least if they made it into the city unseen there was some small chance they’d be presumed dead.

Doubtful, but there was still a chance. None of them had ended up being granted a talent of Ultimate Luck, as the Ultimate Initiative stopped giving those out when they took over from Hope’s Peak as the ones who assigned talents. With that thought, Shuichi realized that Mukuro had to have been lying to him. An Ultimate assigned by Hope’s Peak Academy had no reason to ever receive the ‘failed’ title, as it was just a signifier of status, not somebody hand-picked for the ability to spread hope. He didn’t know why she lied about that. Maybe she was just trying to manipulate him, or maybe she considered herself ‘failed luck’ due to ending up in the first trial-based Killing Game. That was pretty unlucky.

While Shuichi was busy thinking about this, the group managed to reach the city, and Kokichi immediately ducked down next to one of the first buildings, kicked a corner of the wall, then jumped down. It seemed that corner was on some sort of hinge, hiding a short drop. Miu put Shuichi down and followed suit, then Shuichi approached and noticed that there _was_ a small ladder after all, which he made use of to be kind to his bad knee. Rantaro followed next, then shut the hinge behind himself.

They were in darkness for a moment, till Miu flipped a light switch and poor fluorescents along the ceiling came to life, crackling and illuminating the room. It resembled an old office, but rather than desks in some of the cubicles, there were futons and bedding instead. It looked like nobody had used the place in years, but somehow it was kept clean and there weren’t any vermin around.

“Well, that’s a problem,” Miu noted, “Somebody’s actually been using this. I guess it’s not as secret as Maki thought.”

“It’s the best we’ve got,” Kokichi said, wandering out into the underground room and looking around, “Convenient, that it was so nearby… Maybe there’s more of these around the city, and this was just the closest. Ah, here’s some stairs down,” He just looked down the stairs, “There’s some canned food and stuff down there, that’s good. We probably won’t be safe to go outside for a while now, but there’s definitely enough to keep us going long enough for the dust to clear,” He continued down the stairs, then called back up, “There’s a full bathroom down here too!”

“So it’s an old office building, I guess,” Miu said, “Equipped into a shelter. Wonder how it ended up underground, though… The building above us is apartments, not offices, right?”

“It probably fell down during the tragedy,” Rantaro said, “But this floor happened to survive underground, and they just rebuilt on top of it. Maki did say it was where J hid out during the tragedy, right?”

“Akamatsu said something about J being a little kid during that time,” Miu noted, “That would explain the drawings on the walls.”

Shuichi hadn’t even noticed till Miu pointed it out, in the terrible lighting, but there were drawings taped up all around the room. They were still obviously made by a child, but a child with quite a bit of talent, he noted, “It’s kind of sad, isn’t it? To be here… I mean, I know J, whoever he is, got an Alter Ego, but the kids who stayed in here, at least some of them probably died…”

“Yeah, probably,” Kokichi said as he came back up the stairs, “And our friends died, and a bunch more Ultimates are going to die next year, and have been dying since the year we were born, since The Tragedy. There’s a reason it’s called that, there’s a reason the whole world’s in despair. We just have to focus on surviving for now. That’s all we can do.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Shuichi said, then wandered over to one of the cubicles and sat down, “These aren’t especially private, huh? Not that it’s really important.”

“I kind of like this better,” Miu said, holding a hand to her chest, “I mean… Better than having individual rooms with a curfew enforced, for sure. And, after everything that’s happened, I’m not sure I want to be very separated from you guys…” She gave a bit of a weak laugh, “Wow, that’s funny, isn’t it? I’m living an apocalypse scenario with three guys and all I want any of them to do is be my friend.”

“Well that’s good, since that’s definitely all any of us want to be!” Kokichi said, laughing a bit, “No offense to you, of course, you know we all think you’re lovely, but given the situation…”

“Yes, of course,” Miu agreed, “It’s kind of… Comfortable, not to have any chances of that sort of thing hanging between us. The only other time I actually had any relationship like that was with Wataru.”

"We should have something to eat, and get some sleep," Rantaro said, "I know that it's early, but we had a kind of exhausting morning."

"Kind of?" Miu asked, "Try carrying a human over your shoulder the whole way and you won't be saying kind of anymore."

"Sorry..." Shuichi mumbled.

"Not your fault," Miu said, "I mean, seriously. The other option was to let you limp the whole way and get left behind? Like Hell that's happening! I'm just using it to make my point that Amami is underexaggerating."

"Well, I mean," Rantaro shrugged, "It was only exhausting for a little bit there, not the whole morning or anything. Percentage-wise, it's kind of. Effort-wise, though, yeah. Very exhausting. Can't say I ever would have thought I'd set a building on fire, then have to escape it and run a quarter mile."

"Ahaha... Well, I kinda thought that if I did live this long," Kokichi shrugged, "I _would_ end up like this. Being a fugitive from all factions, I mean. Hiding out with people I care about, now that's the bit I never could have imagined! It's thanks to you guys that I was able to come up with this plan at all, you know."

"We have to stick around here for almost a whole year, right?" Shuichi asked, "To rescue Akamatsu and Shirogane. How long do you think it will be until it's safe to go outside?"

"Three months, probably," Kokichi said, tapping his chin, "We _were_ just in a Killing Game, and I bet that Ikusaba and Enoshima are gonna realize we escaped, and we'll be wanted. Everyone will know our faces, and there might be some reward for finding us too. But they'll forget soon enough."

"That's not so bad," Miu said, "Canned food for three months... I can make that palatable."

"I believe in you!" Kokichi grinned at her, "And I believe in your uncanny ability to forget that you don't have to love everything you eat when it's just sustenance! Anyway, yeah. None of us are well-rested anyway, going to sleep early won't hurt."

With that decided, everybody ate some of the canned food, sharing two cans of vegetables and one of a beef stew, and all of those were okay. Cold canned food wasn't the worst, after all. Miu had strange plans to use hot water from the bathroom to find a way to cook, but not that night. Everybody was much too tired after their daring escape, and they wanted to turn off their brains. Continuing to think too much at this point was just going to make them anxious about the gaps still remaining in the plan. After eating, they went to sleep. Shuichi and Kokichi shared the futon in one of the cubicles, while Miu and Rantaro each took their own, all of them swiping extra bedding from the leftover futons, since it was a bit chilly down here.

They'd only slept for about four hours when they were all woken by the light flickering back on, and a shrill voice yelling at them, "If you're here, that means you little fuckers must have Jataro! So where is he!?"


	251. Reality: Day Eight (Lil Failed Ultimate PE)

Standing at the entrance was a woman who seemed almost, but not quite a decade younger than Junko and Mukuro were. She had pink hair tied back in one long ponytail, and she was wearing a mask that resembled a pink version of Monokuma. Only for a few moments though, because she pulled the mask away, glaring at them, “Well, come on! Answer me already, or I won’t help you at _all_!”

“Who’s Jataro…?” Miu asked, the first one awake enough to actually form words as they all squinted at the strange new arrival.

“Ugh, seriously? Fine, his ‘codename’ is J, you know him by that, right? The only way you could have known about this place is if he or I or Ms. S. told you about it, and I know I didn’t, and I know she didn’t cause she still doesn’t like you,” She stuck out her tongue.

“Oh, J?” Rantaro asked, then held up the makeshift hard drive, “We downloaded him along with Maki, but you can’t exactly access him without a computer or anything…”

“Well, that’s good enough. I’ll come back with a computer later,” The woman said, shrugging a backpack off her shoulders and dropping it to the floor as she stepped further into the room, “And somebody who can help you. Anyway, I’m K, that’s what you would have ever heard of me by. My actual name’s Kotoko Utsugi! I’m the former li’l P.E., and I was Junko Enoshima’s successor produced by the Streets Of Despair Killing Game. As for what I am now, though. Guess you could call me…” She grinned, “Failed Ultimate Hope! Since I’m helping you guys instead!”

“Huh, I never heard of _that_ Killing Game,” Kokichi noted, “So, are you the one who’s been keeping this place in shape?”

“‘Course I am,” Kotoko said, squatting down on the floor in front of the cubicle where Kokichi and Shuichi were, narrowing her eyes at the other, “I wouldn’t just let my old hideout fall apart, and I knew someone might need it someday! Anyway, I’m done with Ultimate Hope. They killed Jataro, you know? They were never super nice to us from the start, cause Streets of Despair also ended up making successors to Naegi and Kirigiri… And cause it wasn’t a broadcasted Killing Game. We didn’t get the title of Ultimate Hope in the public eye.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Shuichi asked.

“Trying to figure out if I’d have to kill you to help your friends,” Kotoko said, shrugging, “I don’t, though. Looks like even though you’re an Alter Ego, they aren’t using you like a spy or anything. There’s a GPS tracker, but it won’t do any good underground here. You’ll just have to stay inside till I get someone who can remove it to desert with me.”

“Ahh… Well that’s good to hear…” Shuichi’s voice shook a bit, “It would be really disappointing to get killed again so soon…”

“I wouldn’t have let you do that anyway,” Kokichi said, “There’s always some solution, after all. So, Utsugi. Won’t you tell us what happened in the Streets of Despair Killing Game?”

“Right, it’s important to know where we come from,” Kotoko noted, now sitting down proper. Miu and Rantaro wandered over to hear the story too, “Streets of Despair, it happened right here in Towa City, during the tragedy. Ms. S. took me and Jataro, and three of our other friends, from the Hope’s Peak Elementary ‘special social program’. We weren’t happy kids at all, but Ms. S. saved us and took us away to this hideout. Then she found a way to activate the dome protocol here in Towa. At the time, the tragedy was in full swing, and Despair was so prominent that it was like a zombie apocalypse…”

“Anyway,” Kotoko continued, “With the dome activated, Towa was quarantined. Nobody getting in or out. And we were safe in here. She took care of us, and we watched the first trial-based Killing Game as it aired. She worshiped Mukuro, and Junko too, and got us to agree with her. After the third episode, she turned to us and asked, ‘do you want to help them’? And of course we all did. She told us that Despair was holding a bunch of loved ones of the people in those games hostage right here in Towa, and those people also had the potential to become Hope. So we let them loose in the city to hold their own against Despair.”

“Junko… Had made plans for robots shaped like animals when she was attending Hope’s Peak, and Ms. S., I mean I’m sorry to keep calling her that but that’s really the only name she ever had us call her, being an upperclassman of Junko’s was able to steal the plans. I guess a Despair also was, and that’s how Monokumas came to be, but we used the plans to create cute animal robots to help the hopeful future hopes handle the shuffling masses of Despairs,” Kotoko kept explaining, “And everything really was going okay, until, the final episode of that other Killing Game aired…”

She looked away, frowning, before finally continuing, “And it turned out the Ultimate Heir, Makoto Naegi, was actually Ultimate Despair. And his little sister Komaru Naegi… Was supposed to be one of our hopefuls. In fact, she was doing really well, she teamed up with the Ultimate Detective’s cousin, Kanon Nakajima. But she was actually acting out Despair’s wishes. We all ended up way more involved than we wanted to be, and we felt a lot of Despair too, and Monaca and Masaru and Nagisa all died but me and Jataro didn’t and we held onto hope and we got Nakajima and Naegi to leave Towa City, and then it was okay. But they were successors anyway, like we were. And our friends were gone. But the rest of our hopefuls pulled through and we worked hard and eventually, Towa City became a bastion of Ultimate Hope.”

“So it came at a cost like that…” Miu trailed off, “That just proves it’s not a very good hope at all. But, good on you for being able to get through something like that. It sounds just awful.”

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but,” Shuichi spoke up, “If you were, uh, li’l Ultimate P.E., what talents did your friends have? I was thinking it would be nice to make some sort of memorial for them, and for our friends too… Since I bet that Ikusaba and Enoshima never let you make one before.”

“Dwelling on the past can never help to make a bright future,” Kotoko said, “That’s what they told us, so we tried to forget them, but we never could. Masaru was Li’l Ultimate Social Studies, he was really super smart. And Nagisa was Li’l Ultimate Art, and he drew all this stuff, he thought that if he made beautiful art it would make Towa City a nicer place. Monaca was Li’l Ultimate Drama, and she really was the cutest and I bet if she didn’t die when we were kids I would’ve ended up kissing her at least once, maybe, if she wanted me to…” Kotoko sighed, wrapping her arms around herself, “And Jataro, who you have, thank goodness, used to be the Li’l Ultimate Homeroom. Then he became a successor to Mukuro Ikusaba. And because of that, he thinks it was all his fault, that our friends got killed.”

“We need to remember them,” Shuichi said, “And maybe if we made a memorial, then Jataro could also start feeling better?”

“I think so too,” Kotoko said with a nod, then stood back up and wandered toward the entrance again. She scooped her mask off the ground, and pushed the backpack toward them with her foot, “Here. It’s clean clothes, some fresher but non-refrigerated food, some toiletries. Yours. I’ll be back soon, okay? Keep that hard drive safe for me till then. I’ll get a laptop. Bye-bye,” She affixed the mask to her face again, and climbed out of sight.


	252. Reality: Day Eight (Easy)

Nobody quite knew how to feel about their unexpected newfound ally, except that not a single one of them was actually inclined to distrust her. Kotoko had been upfront with them, she’d shown genuine emotion, and she had very good reasons to turn her back on Ultimate Hope. She told the truth about the contents of the backpack she’d left them, too. Kokichi had investigated it to be sure there wasn’t anything dangerous inside, then set it off against one wall and returned to the cubicle everyone had gravitated to during Kotoko’s story.

“Somehow,” Kokichi said, “Somehow I never could have expected we’d end up with an ally like that, straight away. I’ve also got no idea why I trust her, but it’s undeniable that I do.”

“She’s just like us,” Shuichi said, “Except, she never had a way to escape before. And Ultimate Hope tried to kill the only friend she had left alive, right before we started using her old hideout. It’s not that weird, it’s just a matter of timing.”

“Mm, that’s true,” Kokichi noted, “When Akamatsu told me about ‘J’, anyhow… I guess I thought maybe if there was someone who cared about him, then it might turn out like this, but the fact that it’s so soon after we escaped makes this all feel almost, too easy.”

“Don’t we deserve for it to be easy?” Miu asked, “After everything that’s happened, this is a relief. It’s good that it’s easy. That it’s easier, anyway. We still have to stay hidden for a year, we still have to pray that Akamatsu and Shirogane make it out alive, and then we have to rescue them too. That won’t be easy. But the fact that this part is being easier than expected is amazing.”

“Yeah,” Rantaro said, “The way Utsugi was talking, sounds like there’s more people who might be on our side than we thought.”

“What exactly is our side, anyway?” Kokichi wondered aloud, “We’re against Ultimate Hope, we’re against Despair, we’re against the Future Foundation, and we were already disowned by the Ultimate Initiative. Not to mention, we’re not welcome in any variety of polite society, with all those enemies we’ve made. Our side is something completely different!”

“We’re the Ultimate Fugitives,” Rantaro said, “We’re running from everyone.”

“That sounds so depressing, though!” Miu whined, “Just cause we’re running away now… That’s just because standing up to them failed, and doing anything but running is too dangerous! It’s not like the fact we ran away really means anything about who we are…”

“So,” Shuichi spoke up, “Why not have faith in Shirogane? If we believe she’ll survive, and we rescue her, then we’ll have her with us, and she made me a promise. That me and her and Akamatsu, would go to space someday. So that’s who we are. Ultimate Space Travelers, even if we haven’t gotten there yet.”

“I dunno about that, either,” Miu sighed, holding a hand to her cheek, “Just because we’re planning to rescue her if she survives, and we sure hope she does survive, that doesn’t mean I want to name ourselves based on _her_ talent. I still don’t really trust her enough for something like that!”

“Oh, right…” Shuichi mumbled, “She did kill Tojo, didn’t she…”

“An easy mistake, you weren’t there after all,” Kokichi noted, “But it’s a good point. Even I haven’t forgiven her. Of course, I have an idea for what we’d be considered,” He cracked a smile, “I mean, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Utsugi said it herself. We’re Failed Ultimates. We failed in our original roles as Ultimates, and rejected the new one. She was Ultimate Hope, but in helping us, she’s failed in that role, so she’s Failed Ultimate Hope. So will be anyone else she gets to desert, cause it sure seems like she’s gonna try that. Failure doesn’t have to be a bad thing for us.”

“Oh,” Miu said, “I’d think that’d be more depressing than Ultimate Fugitives, but that’s actually kind of nice. It’s the title that got us into this mess, so calling ourselves by it on purpose proves that we’re stronger than they thought we were. And it can apply to us, and anybody who abandons Ultimate Hope.”

“I agree,” Rantaro said, “Nothing ever happened to make us stop being Failed Ultimates, because we did reject the opportunity to get a new Ultimate Title. After everything that’s happened, I guess I prefer it this way, too. I don’t know how much the Ultimate Initiative has to do with Ultimate Hope, but there’s got to be some level of cooperation there.”

“Yeah, there’s no way that this Failed Ultimates Killing Game thing could have gone on for so long without cooperation from the Ultimate Initiative,” Kokichi said, “And Future Foundation had to know at least a little bit, too, since they sent Idabashi in. Though, I think they’re still enemies… Maybe Idabashi was meant to try and sabotage the game from the inside? In which case, I guess that he did succeed after all.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Rantaro noted, “Angie did say that what went wrong was Idabashi killing Saihara. If not for that, then we’d have been suckered in to working for Ultimate Hope, thinking that it was Despair or Future Foundation who did this to us, and not them.”

“They say ignorance is bliss,” Miu said with a shrug, “If we’d never known, we would have been happy to work with Ultimate Hope. We picked a tougher path, but we never could have been able to go the easier route with what we know. I’d rather know the truth, though, and not work for somebody who’d do something as awful as a Killing Game, than have no idea they were that awful in the first place and be happy working with them.”

“I bet that Utsugi is one of the only members who even knows that Ultimate Hope does the Killing Games these days,” Shuichi noted, “So if she convinces anyone else to desert, they’ll probably have been involved in Killing Games back during the Tragedy, not people who suffered through Hope’s own Killing Games. Why would those people believe her, after all, if she told them the truth…?”

“That’s a good point,” Rantaro agreed, “The others who actually were in broadcast games Masterminded by Ultimate Hope probably won’t get any opportunity to change their minds or get out of there. At least, though, with Utsugi on the inside… We might still be able to get Akamatsu and Shirogane before they’re too brainwashed, assuming the next game goes the way Ultimate Hope is planning.”

“Somehow, with Akamatsu inside?” Kokichi chuckled, “I do doubt that it will go as planned. Let’s get back to sleep.”


	253. Reality: Day Nine (Shower)

Upon actually waking up the next day, everyone had a bit of a slow start excepting Miu. By the time everybody else was awake, she had already set up a mix of the food Kotoko had brought and some more of the canned food for breakfast, taken a shower in the bathroom downstairs, and changed into the clothes evidently meant for her. Kotoko had just brought simple, comfortable outfits, but the shirts had slogans which seemed suited to each of them. Miu’s said “I know how to french (maid)”, as Shuichi discovered when he woke up and saw her hanging out by one of the walls, snacking. She noticed him right away, and waved.

“Morning, Iruma,” Shuichi said, standing up and wandering over toward her, “How long have you been awake?”

“About forty minutes,” Miu answered, then held out one of the crackers she’d spread some deviled ham on, “Care for some apocalypse cuisine?”

Shuichi nodded and took it, then spoke again after he’d eaten it, “The stuff Utsugi brought really helps make the canned food feel more like an actual meal.”

“She brought us lots of useful stuff,” Miu agreed, “I already put the shampoo and soaps down in the shower, and everyone’s new clothing is laid out by that door too. You should get a shower and get changed, since you did sleep in those clothes. None of this is hot food, so it’ll still be here when you’re done.”

“Ah, yeah-” Shuichi gave a nod, then wandered over to the stairs and made his way into the basement, noting that Miu had been quite responsible. It was very different, being in this situation with just a few people, than being in the Ultimate Academy had been. During the Killing Game, Miu’s actions as a maid were appreciated but unnecessary. Here, she had since obtained a better sense of self than being only a maid, but her talent made it very helpful for their comfortable survival.

Shuichi found his outfit, made pretty obvious by the shirt’s silly slogan of “I’m cuter than Mona Lisa”. At least Kotoko had a good sense of humor about this whole situation. He picked up the clothing and brought it with him into the bathroom, setting it aside before he started the shower. He undressed while waiting for the water to heat up, and froze as he was confronted with all of those scars again. Something about being here, about hiding instead of waiting to escape, it made those scars have much more prominence than before. He had something new to be afraid of now, and all these things were…

They were badges of his failure. He wouldn’t have these scars if he hadn’t let himself be killed before, and he was more courageous then. He had plenty of things to be afraid of, but he faced each day ahead of him like it was brand new. Like he could trust everybody around him. Like he was safe and he would make it out of the Killing Game and he could protect Kokichi, but here he was. He made it out, but not of his own power. He trusted the man who murdered him. Kokichi was protecting him now, Kokichi was protecting everybody by leading them away from what would have soon become an empty life under the thumb of Ultimate Hope.

He should have been happy for the escape, but some nagging part of him felt like he shouldn’t have gone. Some part of him shouted that it was a mistake to leave Ultimate Hope and he should go back, he needed to go back, there wasn’t any future here. That part of him shouted, but Shuichi didn’t engage it. He didn’t shout back, he just whispered a simple denial and that was enough, that was plenty. Shuichi knew who he was and how he stood, and any other thoughts were not his own. Any guilt of betraying those who brought him back to life, after they caused his death in the first place, was implanted. He claimed he hadn’t been brainwashed in his form as an Alter Ego, and that was true, but he left out the fact that they certainly had _tried_.

He tried not to think about that as he stepped into the shower, but his thoughts just went to the scars again because no matter what, he couldn’t stop seeing them. They went straight through his body everywhere. If he tried to hide his own chest with his arms, the arms had their own scars, front and back. No amount of twisting could keep these things from his vision. He didn’t want to hate Kiibo. He didn’t want to blame Kiibo for a mistake that Ultimate Hope led him by the nose to make, even if he didn’t make it in the way they’d wanted at the time.

But, sometimes you don’t get what you want. Because Shuichi didn’t want to hate Kiibo, he couldn’t. At the same time, as much as he wanted not to dislike his killer, his true feelings outweighed that. He wasn't able to bury that. Of all things he thought it might be healthy to bury after all, this was something which he couldn't. It was unfortunate, truly. Forgiving Kiibo would probably be good for him, but that was something he just couldn't do.

No matter how much it was the fault of circumstance. No matter how much Kiibo wouldn't have killed him if he had his memories at the time. Maki was a better person than Shuichi was, he felt. She was able to forgive Miu for leading to her death, although, maybe that was different. Maki didn't have any memories of experiencing her death, because this was a different Maki. And it was a complete accident on Miu's part, it wasn't like she killed Maki with her own hands.

Being killed by somebody ought to make hating them easy. Shuichi wondered if feeling like he would _rather_ not hate his own killer was actually something that was dragging him down. If he just let himself hate Kiibo, or if he was able to forgive him outright, either of those options would probably be better than thinking he ought to forgive but never could. Kiibo killed him, and he was dead now. Shuichi had been killed, but he was still alive.

Why wasn't that revenge enough? Why wasn't it okay?

Shuichi finished showering, and got dressed in the clothes Kotoko had brought him, and he noticed that the t-shirt had long sleeves. It seemed that she expected he'd rather cover up his skin as much as he could. Of course, she could conclude something like that. She knew what happened to him. She had her own traumas from a Killing Game. She had to understand.

Shuichi didn't want to leave that visual reminder. To himself, to the others. That he'd been weak enough to get himself killed once before.

That out of everybody here, he was _not_ a survivor.


	254. Reality: Day Nine (Programming)

Shuichi got dressed and went back upstairs, and still only Miu was awake. At the same time, he realized as soon as he arrived that she could tell something was different about him now, and she didn't hesitate to moments later, make that known, "Saihara, are you alright? You don't look so good. I was expecting you'd seem refreshed after a shower..."

"I..." Shuichi mumbled, staring down at the floor where he stood, "I think that maybe, I might leave."

"What?" Miu asked, standing up and stepping straight toward him, knocking over one of the cans in her haste, "Saihara, you can't do that. You can't possibly be thinking about going back to Ultimate Hope, after everything... And what they're still doing to Akamatsu and Shirogane-"

"No, I'm not thinking of going back to them," Shuichi said, "I'm just thinking about leaving. I realized that I'm... Not especially useful to you. My talent isn't very useful in the first place, and unlike the rest of you, I'm weak. I didn't survive the Killing Game. What use can I really be in a dangerous situation like this one?"

"What use? Saihara," Miu reached out and grabbed his shoulders, "None of us are of any _use_ , we're just friends who escaped a shitty situation. Ultimate Hope cared about us having a use. That was the purpose of a Killing Game. To sniff out and be rid of anyone who wasn't 'worthy' of being Ultimate Hope, and who was 'too weak' to fight against Despair. I don't think that we have anything to do with that. Maybe we weren't the most worthy or the strongest at all. We're just us."

"But-" Shuichi protested.

"Whatever you're going to say, it doesn't matter," Miu said, "You didn't survive? Well, you're here. You're an Alter Ego? You're still you, no matter what sort of stupid thoughts they might try and put in your head. You've got that GPS tracker on you? Utsugi already said that's not a threat to any of us as long as you stay inside."

"Wait," Shuichi said, "What?"

"The only way you could have got to thinking we'd be better off without you, that you're not 'useful', would be if Ultimate Hope did tamper with your brain in some way when they brought you back," Miu said, rubbing her hands over Shuichi's shoulders now, "I know you want to believe your own thoughts. And I know you want to think you'd be able to tell if they were inserting something that wasn't meant to be there, but if it's the sort of thing you think you could have thought of on your own, then you'll believe it."

"I don't like that," Shuichi said.

"Nobody would like that," Miu noted, then let go of his arms and took a step back, showing him a sympathetic look, "They didn't think about using you against us, but they did think about trying to brainwash you the same way they were going to brainwash us, huh? I guess that making you trust them wholeheartedly would just be too far of a stretch from who you are as a person, and make brainwashing us pretty hard too, since it would be suspicious. So it's little things."

"How am I supposed to combat that sort of thing?" Shuichi asked, "If I can't even trust my own thoughts..."

"The same way we combated it this time, obviously," Miu said, giving a small, joking curtsy, "You come and tell me before you try to do something that you think might not be the best idea. I mean, even if you thought in some part that leaving was a good idea, you still confessed it to me before doing anything about it."

"You're right," Shuichi said, "Do you think it will ever stop?"

"Of course," Miu said, "People change. And it isn't like these are signals being sent to you, they're problems that were programmed into your personality when you were brought back as an Alter Ego. So it's not like the thoughts are going to turn up over and over again, they're just something that you need to figure out how to overcome. That makes sense, right?"

"It does," Shuichi said, "When you put it like that, it's a little less frightening. I know people can change, I changed plenty in just the few months we spent in the secret compound. I guess it'll just take some work. A lot of things take work even though they probably shouldn't, don't they?"

"Yeah," Miu agreed, "We shouldn't have had to work hard to become enemies of every powerful organization in this world. Escaping from people who were supposedly the good guys."

"But we did work hard, and we did it," Shuichi said, "So I can do this too. I was a part of that escape..."

"You were," Miu said with a nod, "Just because I carried you during the physical part, doesn't mean you weren't important. The garbage sticks that you made, those were great. We might not have actually been able to set the fire properly without those. You say your talent's not very useful, but every talent is useful if you find a way to apply it, you know. And I hope all you ever need to do again with your talent, is create art that makes people happy."

"I hope so too," Shuichi agreed, following Miu back to the wall where the food was still on the floor. Miu picked up the can she knocked over, and they both sat down to eat deviled ham on crackers while waiting for their other friends to wake up, so that they could send those to do the same as they already had. Shower, get dressed in new clothes, then come and eat.

It was a routine. A strange one. A very weird routine, indeed, but a routine. And it was a loose routine, and one they picked themselves, not enforced on them by Monokuma or by any rules of the place they were living. This hideout was exactly the same as all of them were. It had been through a Killing Game, but now, the hideout was a form of freedom and all of them were free, more free than any Ultimate who came before them.

And more people would come along to freedom. Kotoko proved that.

And if anybody chose to leave freedom, they were free to do so. Just not without a good conversation first. Not without a reminder that they might belong here after all.


	255. Reality: Day Fourteen (Allies)

And with that in mind, everybody was relieved when Kotoko returned again. She showed up from the entrance, carrying with her not a backpack this time, but a whole suitcase. She rolled it out onto the floor, pulled it open, and pulled out two laptops before anybody had even greeted her. She shoved them out toward Rantaro, their power supplies balanced on top of them, "Amami, here. I brought two of them, so that Jataro and Maki don't have to fight over whose turn it is to interact with us."

"Yeah,okay," Rantaro said, taking both laptops from her and immediately going to plug them into outlets along the wall, "There's more information than just those two on the drive, how do you think we should split those things up?"

"I think the extra info should go on Jataro's laptop," Kotoko said, "If I know him, and I sure do know him, he's less likely to want to be given a robot body or anything. Not to mention, if some of that information has to do with other Killing Games than yours, Jataro will have more context for the info than Maki would."

"That makes sense," Rantaro said, "And he's going to stay here with us, right?"

"Yeah," Kotoko said, "As much as I'd love to bring him along with me, I can't, you know? If I brought him back to HQ, then they'd know I know where you guys are, and that wouldn't be good at _all_."

"When are you thinking of coming here full time?" Miu asked.

"Well," Kotoko looked away, tapping her chin with one finger, "I'll probably start spending more time here, but full time? Not until after the fifty-fourth Killing Game, so that if your friends do end up at headquarters, I can get them out. Plus, I mean, it'd be kind of weird if I just moved in with a bunch of teenagers! Gotta get some more adults on my side first."

"That makes sense," Shuichi said, "I know I'd feel weird, living with a bunch of little kids I'm not related to. It's kind of the same thing, right?"

"Yeah, you get it!" Kotoko said with a bit of a laugh, "Like, just because I'm helping you kids out, you still _are_ teens. I'd just feel like I'm somehow adopting all of you at once if I was living here. I just wanna be, like, the cool aunt in your whole rebellion thing."

"You're succeeding so far!" Kokichi exclaimed with a bit of a laugh, "Anyway, what's the rest of the stuff in that suitcase? I don't wanna sound rude, but come on, I can't let the curiosity keep eating me up any longer!"

"It's more clothes, more food," Kotoko said, pulling stuff out of the suitcase and laying it along the wall gently, "Plus, some other stuff. Some books to read, some art supplies for Saihara, just, you know. Stuff to keep you from getting bored."

"That's great," Miu said, "Because, well, we kind of were getting bored..."

Kotoko gave a nod, "Yeah, I would too. The only reason we didn't get bored down here during the Streets of Despair game was because, well, the game was going on. And we were watching another game at the same time, too. And we had more supplies than you guys. I dunno exactly what to do to help you out, so I'm just bringing stuff when I think of it... Ah, an induction burner, too. I bet you were getting tired of cold food."

"I found a way to heat some of it up with hot water from the bathroom," Miu said, "But being able to actually cook would definitely help."

"I'd bring a minifridge," Kotoko said, "But, I probably couldn't fit that in a bag, and it's way weirder to see someone walking down the street with one of those than with a bag. Actually, I'm always hauling bags of different sizes around the city, for lots of reasons, so this doesn't stand out at all. As far as anyone's concerned, I'm not doing anything different than I usually do. Especially since I kept coming back here before you were using it anyhow. Really, it's kind of a really convenient coincidence that I was doing all this before you came here..."

"Not really," Rantaro said, "I mean, J... Uh, Kemuri, he's the one who told us to come here. He probably knew that you've been doing this, right? So you may not have intended it, but you did end up coordinating. It's not so much a coincidence as it is a show that you know each other well enough. I mean, I'm sure that Kemuri could have told us about any number of other places to hide in this city, maybe even one closer to the compound we escaped from. But he picked this one."

"That's true," Kotoko said, "This was our hideout, but there were other hiding places all around too. Though, different people know about those ones, and I dunno if I'd trust all of them. Some of them were used by Naegi and Nakajima, and Ultimate Hope has a lot of intel on what Ultimate Despair knows and doesn't know, so Junko would probably be aware of those ones at least. This is definitely the safest place, except for me. I guess Jataro took a gamble that I'd side with you after what Ultimate Hope did to him."

"Well, it's a good thing that gamble worked out..." A new voice joined the conversation, and Kotoko whipped her head around to see that Rantaro had already got Jataro's Alter Ego loaded up on one of the laptops, "I didn't think that you'd choose them over me, though, Kotoko... Even though I dunno why you'd make that decision..."

"Oh, shut up," Kotoko whined, turning away from him, "Of course I was going to side with you! I mean, honestly. Even Ms. S. is having doubts about Ultimate Hope. After all, she keeps needing to recruit new people for the Killing Games every year, and they really shouldn't still be happening. If the person who got me into hope in the first place is doubting it, and they tried to kill the only friend I had left, why would I still care about them?"

"Because if any of us was going to be the sole survivor, it would be you?" Jataro offered, "I mean... My Ultimate Talent wasn't even a real skill... You've always been more capable. I wouldn't have been surprised if you decided that you had something better with Ultimate Hope than you would here."

"Well, you'd be wrong not to be shocked by that, because that seriously surprises me," Kotoko said, then walked over to the laptop and sat down in front of it, "I mean, come on. Why would I ever abandon you? You know that's not something that I'd do. I mean, after Monaca..."

"Right," Jataro mumbled, "I'm sorry, you're right. Even if you didn't care about me, there is that, isn't there?"

"But I do care about you," Kotoko said, "But, you know, in another life I probably could do something like abandon you if it was for your own good. Here, I mean, I just couldn't do that. I can't lose you, Jataro. You really are all that I have left."

"I know, Kotoko," Jataro said, with a deep sigh, "I'm sorry. I know. It's hard to believe sometimes, but I know that you do care about me. Thank you for coming back for me. I never thought you would have. I'm really happy you did, though."

"Good," Kotoko said, then turned to look at the other survivors, "Now, we have to think about what's next."


	256. Reality: Day Fourteen (A Final Decision)

"Well, we need to stick around here for a while, I know that much," Shuichi joined in the conversation, "Kemuri, what sort of information have you got there with you that Maki wouldn't have told us about?"

"Uhh, let's see..." Jataro looked up for a few moments, thinking, probably shuffling through the relevant data, till he spoke again, "I have some remnants of the Ultimate Academy simulation stored on here, so somebody smart could probably get that working if you wanted to, for some reason... I can also get out to certain television frequencies from this thing, but between it only being some frequencies and this being Towa City, all I could really do is show the channel the Killing Games are broadcast on. Right now it's still working through your stuff, but this will let us watch your friends... I also have recordings of some of the older games."

"Ah, really? What's the oldest one that you have?" Kotoko asked.

"Well," Jataro said, "Enoshima and Ikusaba weren't lying about their own game being lost to the sands of time. All I can find on it is a transcript up to the end of the first trial, and something about it seems kind of inaccurate to me for that matter... The trial is just way too dumb to be the way things actually happened. Anyway, the oldest that I do have access to is just listed as the second trial-based Killing Game..."

"Isn't that the one that Ms. S. would have been in?" Kokichi offered, "I feel like Akamatsu mentioned something about that. Normally I wouldn't want to watch a Killing Game at all, but..."

"It would fill up the time," Kotoko said, "Not to mention, that it _is_ important to look back and understand how we got where we are today. I never saw the game that Ms. S. was in, myself, since she ended up in that after Streets of Despair and we didn't know about it here in Towa until after."

"I can't imagine that I want to see an old Killing Game," Shuichi mumbled, "That far back, it would have been run by Ultimate Despair, right? So it could be even worse than the one that we were in, since I bet they had no intentions of doing anything at all with the survivors."

"That's true," Kotoko said, "The early Killing Games never intended to have survivors at all, but by using Hope against Despair, escape was able to be found. At least Despair always wanted to have a fair fight when it came down to the end, in the trial-based ones. If Despair lost the trial fairly, then that was how things would be. No questions asked or anything. In my own game... We just got lucky any of us lived through it."

"I guess that it is in the past," Miu said, "Far enough in the past that, whoever died back then has already been long gone enough for everyone who needed to mourn them to have done so. It wouldn't be entertaining, that's for sure, but maybe we could figure out more about how things got this bad."

"Exactly," Kotoko said, "It really will be a while until I can get anyone else on our side, and even longer until we can save your friends who've been picked as Ultimate Survivors. Consider it a scholarly pursuit. Besides, if it gets too much for you, you can always just walk away."

"That's true," Shuichi agreed, "I think I might prefer to draw than to watch this old Killing Game, though."

"Understandable," Kokichi said, "I don't know if I'll be able to watch it either, but I think that we should at least put it on. There could be useful information somewhere in it... As much as I hate to say it. I don't want anything to do with a Killing Game ever again, but they are a part of the world, especially the way we're engaging with that world now. It's become a part of our lives that we can't deny. If I can stomach it, to learn how we got here, then I want to know."

"I do too," Rantaro said, "I still can't understand, how a Killing Game is even something which exists at all. If this can give any insight to how something so horrible came to be commonplace enough to be carried out every year by a group who claim to be working for the true good of the world..."

"It really is disgusing," Miu said, "I can't understand it. We shouldn't have to understand it. Before I was in a Killing Game myself, then I never would have wanted to understand it, but now that I've experienced firsthand the sort of things that happen..."

Shuichi sighed, burying his face in his hands. They were right. He couldn't deny that he _was_ curious too, even if there were plenty of things which he would rather do than ever watch any Killing Game again. It wasn't that he wanted to see what had happened in the past at all, he didn't want to see that, but he wanted to know it. He wanted to know what had happened more than thirty years ago, what sort of Killing Game Ultimate Despair would have run. He did not want to see it firsthand but he couldn't go on without any sort of understanding, just like the others said.

Of course nobody wanted to watch a Killing Game, but they wanted to know what sort of understanding that game could bring to them, and bring to their current situation. It wasn't a matter of wanting to be entertained or wanting to see violence or anything like that, not at all. It was simple. It was a scholarly pursuit, just like Kotoko said. To stand up against the Killing Game, they first had to understand the Killing Game. He took a deep breath, then spoke up again, "I don't think I'll watch it. But I think we should put it on. Maybe I'll watch the end of it, when they start getting answers, or something. You're right that we need to understand. I just won't engage with it myself."

"Okay," Kotoko said, then turned to Jataro on the laptop and gave a nod, eyes locked with his, "Jataro... Show it to us."


	257. The End

So that's it, folks.

That's the end of Everybody's Brand New and Improved Killing Game Semester. For a while there I never expected for it to go on this long, and then once it started being this long and this important to me, it was hard to think I'd ever reach the end. But here we are. This is it for BNAI, but it's not the end of the story, that much should be pretty clear. So what's up next?

Well, first off, I'm going to write more Lost Chapters. I have some plans, and I'll also take requests for anything that you might want to see that we missed out on during the Killing Game. NSFW requests will be handed off to my friend Lemonquails who has volunteered to do that for me, thanks Lemon you're a real pal.

Next up, as those last few chapters probably informed you, I'll be writing a prequel to this story with the sdr2 cast. That one will be called ["Super Dangan Ronpa Hope v Despair"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15124730/chapters/35069120) and I'm actually posting the first chapter on the same day as I'm posting this one. Hope v Despair will take place in the same universe, but can be taken as a standalone story, as this one could. Hope v Despair will have entirely different twists, etc, the only new information that will actually impact the outcome of this story will be the reveal of Ms. S's identity. My intention will be that BNAI and Hope v Despair can be read in any order and still be understood and a good experience.

Hope v Despair will be posting daily for a while, but after I've actually finished the art that I need to be able to kick off BNAI's _sequel_ , I'll be starting that as well. It won't be both daily or an alternation, rather, at least one of them will update every day. I'll try not to interrupt trials by switching to the other story, and if two trials are happening at the same time between both stories somehow, then I'll post both daily until the trial is finished.

The sequel will indeed by the next Killing Game which Kaede and Tsumugi will be forced to participate in, Mister Monokuma's Medicinal Murdergame. Given it's a sequel, there will need to be other characters added in. I'll be pulling these characters from my other, original works. And speaking of those, if you do want to become familiar with some of the characters ahead of time, I'll be making each of my ebooks, all of which I am pulling certain characters from, free for five days, ([As can be found on my goodreads page](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15415197.Nico_H_)) and my free serials can be found on [nicoserial.blogspot.com](http://nicoserial.blogspot.com/p/about-important-to-read.html) . The characters who I'll be pulling from the serials have made appearances in Checkboxes and Mahou Shonen Just Say No.

**Please note that due to some issues I had on the end of the publishing client, 'Detective Haruhi' will not start its free book promotion until July 2nd rather that 1st**

Some of the characters in the next Killing Game haven't appeared in any works yet, or have only been mentioned in passing. Also, in spite of it being a crossover, the next game should be easily understood without any prior knowledge of the characters, as I will be writing it with that perspective in mind. I would really appreciate if you guys would read some of my original works, of course, but I understand if you have a preference for fanfiction.

Moving on from that, if anybody is interesting in a digital or physical special edition of this fic, you can email me at nickrshaughnessy@gmail.com . If several people are interested, I may put in the work to make it happen.

Now, with all the business out of the way, I won't be marking this fic as completed just yet. My intention had been to use this chapter to also share with you all of the additional art and fanart that I never got the opportunity to include within the story, but due to some recent circumstances (I got so sick I could barely even write) I wasn't able to gather those images in time. I'll be posting them soon, in one last chapter.

(EDIT: I haven't done this, it's been months, I want to mark the fic as completed anyway)

Also of note is that with the addition of a third related work to ao3, I've turned this into a series listing. If anybody somehow happened to write their own fic of my fic, I'd gladly add that to the series so that everybody can find it more easily!

Finally, thank you all for reading, for commenting, for leaving so many kudos it's honestly _ridiculous_. Thank you to those who stuck around till the end. Thank you for taking this journey with me. And I hope that you'll continue to stand by my side for a long time yet. You readers all mean the world to me.

I'll see you soon.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Everyone's Brand New And Improved Lost Chapters](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13193463) by [Nhitori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori)




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